High Priestess

by Wendy Hewlett

  LaCroix dropped back into his chair with a pained expression on his face. “Jesus, Rave. How did you get through testing and the academy with all of that locked up inside you?”

  Raven narrowed her eyes at him. Had Mick told him all about her history with Gregor? Did he know more than she just admitted to? “How much do you know, Grayson?”

  “I know Gregor Paigo lived with your mother for a period of two years beginning fifteen years ago. He’d been gone for a year when you left home twelve years ago. Did he come back? Is that why you fled?”

  Raven’s bottom lip began to quiver, so she lowered her head into her palms to try to hide it and get control of herself. Her belly roiled with that sick feeling you get when something goes horribly wrong.

  “I don’t expect you to talk to me about it, Rave. But, I do expect you to talk about it with the therapist.”

  She took that as an excuse to escape, left the coffee on his desk and moved to the door. Just as she pulled it open, he added, “Oh, and you are joined at the hip with Mick until this is all sorted out.”

  She turned back, shoving the door closed again. “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me. You don’t go anywhere without her. I don’t want you on your own until we know who and what we’re dealing with.”

  “By what do you mean hocus pocus?”

  He tried, and failed, to suppress a smile. “Is that what you call it?”

  Raven rolled her eyes then pulled the door open again and crossed to her desk. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Mick because she knew Mick would pick up on her pregnancy, if she hadn’t already. Was that why she’d asked her if she was pregnant the other day? Had Mick sensed it? No, she couldn’t think about it until she saw Simone, who had just become a murder suspect. Damn it. She picked up her phone and called Simone’s office. The receptionist picked up on the third ring.

  “Hi, it’s Detective Constable Bowen.”

  “Oh, hello Raven. Did you want to change your appointment?”

  Raven pulled the receiver from her ear and stared into it for a moment. Had she not just introduced herself as Detective Constable Bowen?

  “No, no. Could you tell me the name of the conference Dr. Wagnar attended last week and also the name of the hotel she stayed at?”

  “Oh. This is about your mother’s passing. You need to check her alibi. Um, hang on a minute.” Raven could hear papers rustling around before the receptionist’s voice sounded again. “It was the Boston Medical Conference and she stayed at the Marriott in downtown Boston.”

  Raven scribbled out the information onto a piece of scrap paper. “Great. Thank you.” She hung up and then made the call she’d been dreading. She dialed Ena’s house number. Kiran picked up almost immediately.

  “Hey, it’s Raven.”

  “Hello, love. Is everything alright?”

  “Yeah, I … um, I need a contact number so I can verify your whereabouts for the last month of Ena’s life.” She was met with silence and the longer it went on, the more she wondered if he’d been lying about where he was.

  “I’m sorry. Are you asking me for an alibi?”

  Shit. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

  “Do you have a pen handy?”

  When Raven said she did, he rhymed off a long number.

  “That will put you in touch with my superior, aye? Or you can call the Navy directly, just keep in mind they’re five hours ahead of us. Alright?”

  “Yeah, thank you.” And she meant it, for him not making it weird.

  “I loved your mother, Raven. If I’d known our time together was going to be cut short like this … Well, I would have done things differently, aye?”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “I’ll see you tomorrow then, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” Raven set the receiver gently into the cradle. She had no doubt Kiran loved Ena and she could see why Ena loved him. She wished things could have been different too and that she’d had the chance to know her parents together.

  She spent nearly an hour on the phone, but she didn’t feel any better when both Simone’s and Kiran’s alibis check out. That left Adara and Raven just couldn’t wrap her head around Adara poisoning anyone, never mind her best friend. What possible motive could she have had? Jealousy over Ena’s role as High Priestess? Money? Did she know Ena was going to leave her five million?

  Yes to both, darling angel. She was jealous and she knew about the money.

  Raven’s elbows hit the desk with a thud and she dropped her head into her hands She couldn’t believe what she was about to do. She pushed up to her feet and walked the twenty feet to LaCroix’s office feeling like her boots weighed a hundred pounds each.

  “DS?” She waited for his head to pop up. “I need a warrant to access Adara Kirby’s financial records.”

  “The other two’s alibis panned out?”

  Raven nodded,.

  LaCroix turned his chair so he was facing Raven. “Are you sure you want to continue to investigate this case?”

  She closed her eyes for half a second to push all of the pain down deep. It felt so wrong to be delving into Adara’s affairs. “Yes, sir. I need to finish it.”

  He pursed his lips, but nodded. “Very well. Get your warrant.”

  It took another fifteen minutes to type up the warrant request and send it off. When she checked the time, she remembered she needed a new cell phone number. Oh, crap. She had half an hour to get to the mobile carrier’s store. Raven grabbed her coat off the back of her chair and headed for the garage where she parked her car.

  In the hallway, she was stopped by Mick’s voice calling after her. “Where are you going?”

  Damn. She forgot she was supposed to be glued to Mick. She turned to find Mick by the squad room door dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. “I have an errand to run.”

  “Alright. Give me a sec to grab my coat. I’m coming with.”

  * * *

  They left the safety of the garage with Mick driving and Raven laying down in the back seat, hoping the reporters wouldn’t follow Mick and, to Raven’s surprise, it worked.

  Raven texted her new number to LaCroix, dispatch, Mick, and Riley. She called Kiran and when he didn’t pick up she left her new number on Ena’s voice mail, finding it a little creepy Ena’s voice was still on there, inviting the caller to leave a message at the tone. She purposely didn’t give Adara her new number, hoping it was Constable Tate who gave out her information and he would get the new number from dispatch and do the same thing. She still couldn’t put that on Adara. She knew Adara, inside and out. She couldn’t have done all of this.

  Now she had the issue of where she was going to stay tonight. She couldn’t go home because of the media surrounding her cottage unless she wanted to make a dash through the throngs of reporters and that just might be worth it.

  “You’re not going to be able to hide from them forever. Why not go home, tell them you have no comment, and hopefully that will be the end of it?”

  Raven glanced over at Mick. She’d been sitting quietly in the passenger seat for the past few minutes while Raven was busy on her phone. Mick shrugged her shoulders.

  “Do you really think they’ll leave if I do that?”

  “Maybe,” Mick answered.

  “What if they keep throwing those questions at me? I don’t know how to respond to that.” God, was she really considering talking to them?

  “You just keep telling them you have no comment and then just go into your house.”

  “Where are you going? Home?”

  “No, I put my bag in the trunk. I’ll be staying wherever you are.”

  Raven’s nostrils flared. Damn LaCroix. How was she supposed to go see Simone in the morning with Mick in tow? “You’d have to sleep on the couch. Why don’t you just come back in the morning?”

  Mick let out a quick laugh. “Are you kidding? LaCroix would murder me.”

  “I’m not some weak kid who can’t protect herself. And, I have a weapon.”


  “Is it really so hard to let people who care about you take care of you, Rave? I know I freaked out when we were at Paigo’s, but if anyone tried to hurt you, I wouldn’t freeze like I did then. I wouldn’t hesitate to use my weapon.”

  Raven’s chest tightened, her eyes burned, and she had to look away. Her hormones must really be out of whack. At that thought, she had to remind herself not to think about being preggers and that only made her not be able to stop thinking about it. “You better damn well stay out of my head if you’re going to stay with me.”

  “I already told you I would try my best.”

  “Yeah, but you were in my head when you said I wouldn’t be able to avoid the reporters.”

  “Oh, was I? Sorry, I hadn’t realized.”

  Raven scowled at her. “Do you have any control whatsoever over your …” She was about to call it her gift, but she hated that word. It wasn’t a gift, it was a curse. “Your psychic ability?”

  Mick’s eyebrows drew together and her eyes narrowed.

  “Yes, of course, I do. Mostly. Do you have any control over yours?”

  Answering that question would be admitting she had that ability and she didn’t want to admit it. She blocked it out completely years ago. She wasn’t sure you could get something like that back after blocking it for so long. Then she remembered the words she heard in her head just before Ena’s time of death. You have great powers, Rave. You’ve only to open yourself to them.

  It’s true, Angel. But, I understand now why you wanted to block them. And suppressing them helped to keep you safe.

  Raven ignored the fact that Mick was sitting right beside her. Mick knew her mother was talking to her anyway, so why hide it? “Why did you send me that message on your death bed? Of all the things you could have said to me, why that?”

  Because the Goddess blessed you with great powers. You shouldn’t deny the gifts you’ve been blessed with, darling Rave. Mick could help you to tune yourself back into your psychic ability. There’s a reason for everything, Rave. I believe Mick came into your life at this time for a purpose. Let her help you and then go to the gathering of the coven and find my killer.

  Raven slouched forward, wrapped her hands tightly around the steering wheel and rested her forehead on it. “Seriously? You want me to find your killer using psychic powers I’ve been blocking for fifteen years?”

  I’m saying it will help you. It will help you to stay safe, as well. Someone was able to hex the staff at the hospital and they were able to get into your head before you were hit by a truck. You need to use your powers to be able to protect yourself, my darling.

  She could find the killer using the powers of investigation and she could protect herself without psychic powers just fine, thank you very much.

  It’s not just yourself you have to think about now, Rave. You have to think about the safety of your daughter, too. She could have been killed when Jaxon’s truck hit you. Please, my darling angel, use your powers so that you can protect yourself and my granddaughter … Kiran’s granddaughter. You’re the most powerful witch I’ve ever known. Not only do you have the powers of the Bowen line, but you have the powers of your father’s people. That’s where your psychic powers originated.

  Raven turned to glare at Mick. Was she listening in? Mick glanced over at her, offered a thin lipped smile, shrugged and then went back to staring out the window. Raven dropped her forehead back onto the steering wheel, banged it softly several times and then sat up straight.

  “If I’m so powerful, why do I need protection?”

  There will be many who covet your powers. The kind of power you have is rare. You were already at risk being a Bowen. Being a Bowen-Hayes doubles that. The time is here for you to remember what I taught you.

  “What does that mean?”

  Remember your dreams.

  Remember what dreams? “I don’t understand.”

  Silence. Damn it. Why did Ena have to disappear when she needed her? It seemed not much had changed in twelve years.

  Time to put her big girl pants on and stop hiding from everything, starting with going home. She wasn’t going to let the damn media keep her from her own home. She reversed out of the parking spot, but she had one stop to make before heading home.

  She drove to Solstice General Hospital, told Mick to wait in the car, and headed in to make a deal with the hospital administration. They must have known who she was because the head nurse came out to meet her, accompanied by the hospital’s lawyer, Robert Stanson. Good, he was just the person Raven wanted to see.

  “Mr. Stanson. I’m glad you’re here. As you’ve probably heard, my mother, Ena Bowen, did not die from fourth stage stomach cancer. She died from arsenic poisoning.” There was nothing the hospital staff would have been able to do to save Ena when she came into emergency, but Raven wasn’t about to tell Stanson that. “I won’t sue the hospital for negligence on one condition.”

  Stanson managed to look down his nose at Raven even though she was taller than him. “And what is your condition, Constable Bowen?”

  “That’s Detective Constable Bowen. My condition is that you reinstate Riley Gallagher with full pay for her lost time.”

  “And if Ms. Gallagher is not reinstated?”

  Raven flashed him a sweet smile. “Not only will I sue the ass off the hospital, I’ll make sure Riley Gallagher has the best damn wrongful dismissal lawyer money can buy.” She didn’t wait for an answer. She turned and walked out, leaving Robert Stanson sneering after her.

  She got back in her car with a smile on her face.

  “Where to now?” Mick asked.

  “Home. Let’s face the frickin’ press.”

  Mick smiled and said, “Yes. That’s my girl. Don’t let them force you into staying away from your own place.”

  “What are you? My cheerleader?”

  “If that’s what you need, sure.”

  Raven just shook her head. The courage she felt moments ago faded with every kilometre. The closer she got to home, the more her stomach knotted. By the time she pulled onto her road, her palms were sweaty, and her mouth was dry. As she neared her driveway, people began to exit their vehicles and move onto the road. She had to drive at a snail’s pace so she didn’t run anyone over and the whole time people were flashing their cameras and shouting out questions, mostly about Gregor Paigo molesting her as a child.

  “It’s okay,” Mick said in a soft voice. “They can’t hurt you. They’re only questions and you don’t have to answer them.”

  Tell that to her heart, which was bouncing around in her chest like a super ball on steroids. She suspected if she looked down she’d see it throbbing through her skin. When she finally made it to the driveway, she was relieved all of the reporters stayed out on the street. No one tried to trespass onto her property. Raven ran her sweaty palms down her thighs then looked over at Mick.

  “I don’t know if I can do this.”

  Mick reached out and took Raven’s hand in hers. “I’ll be right there with you. All you have to do is tell them you have no comment now or at any time in the future.”

  It was as if Mick was downloading calmness from her hand to Raven’s. It spread up her arm and then through her entire body bringing a sense of serenity.

  Raven yanked her hand from Mick’s with the sudden thought that Mick had the ability to get into her head before the accident and to mess with the minds of the hospital staff. Mick’s mother was a member of the coven and for all Raven knew, Mick could be, too. Mick also could have given out her cell phone number and home address. Ena seemed to trust her, but could she take Ena’s word for it. Damn it, she didn’t know who to trust.

  “Shall we do this?” Mick’s hand was on the door handle as she smiled at Raven.

  Raven placed the heel of her hand over her heart and tried to massage it into slowing down before she opened her door. The crowd at the end of the driveway began to shout before she could even get out of the car.

  As they approached the en
d of the driveway, Mick grabbed onto her hand again and the sense of calmness began to flood through her. She pulled her hand away and glared at Mick.

  “Shouldn’t you ask someone’s permission before you do something like that?”

  “Like what? Taking your hand? Sorry. I just thought you might like a little support.”

  Did Mick really not know the effect her touch was having on her? Raven didn’t believe that for a second, but why would she lie about it? And if she was lying about that, what else was she lying about?

  They stopped at the left side of the end of the driveway so the camera angles wouldn’t include footage of her cottage and Raven waited until all of the shouting died down. “I have no comments to make in regards to Gregor Paigo and the ongoing investigation, nor will I have any comments in the future.”

  While she was talking, Raven spotted the reporter who first broached the question about whether Gregor Paigo molested her while he was living with her mother. They made eye contact and Raven motioned her over. If she remembered correctly, she’d identified herself as Kelsey St. Germaine from NNN. She still restrained her light brown locks in a tightly pulled back ponytail. Up close, she could see tiny laugh lines at the corners of Kelsey’s brown eyes that put her in her forties, older than Raven first suspected.

  Raven ignored the questions being shouted out again and walked back down the driveway until they were out of earshot from the other reporters. “I need to know where you got your information about Gregor Paigo living with my mother.”

  Kelsey frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

  “I realize you want to protect your source, but the person you are protecting may be a person of interest in my investigation. I need the information.” Raven towered over Kelsey with her hands on her hips, a position of authority which was usually very intimidating, but it didn’t seem to phase Kelsey.

  “I’m not protecting a source. I really don’t know who gave us the information. The call came into our station from a blocked number.”

  “Do you have a recording of the call?”

  “No, I don’t believe so. One of our operators took the call and wrote down the information that was given.”