A Handful of Skulls (Here Witchy Witchy Book 9)

by A. L. Kessler

  I didn’t take any further steps. “About?”

  “A nurse that tended to you was found dead.”

  I’d almost forgotten about nurse Becky. “Oh.” I think I was out of caring for the moment. “I saw that on the news.” I tried to muster up some sympathy. But my brain was still on wolves. I took a deep breath. “Please, come in.”

  I walked to my office door and swiped my badge. I let her in, and I followed. I dropped my bag at my desk and sat down. I wanted to come out and ask if I was a suspect, but that probably wouldn’t help the situation.

  “The nurse was found drained of blood. Would you have any ideas why?”

  Well, I wasn’t a vampire, so I guess I was off the suspect list. But my mind went to Levi and Mario. Would they have done something to keep the nurse from talking about my file?

  I shook my head. “No, I was discharged that night. I went home under the care of a private doctor and Levi.” Not that I expected her to know who Levi was.

  “I read the paperwork. Becky was very against letting you go in the condition you were in. I see you’ve gotten better, save for a few?” She motioned to the visible bandage on my arm.

  “That’s actually a dog bite. Ran into one on my jog, and he didn’t seem to like me. As for my injuries sustained in the bombing, I know a healer. They were nice enough to stop by after I was discharged from the hospital.” I smiled. “As for Nurse Becky, I don’t know what to tell you.”

  She nodded. “That’s fine, Agent Collins. Honestly, I didn’t think you’d be able to provide me any information, but you know…”

  I smiled. “Yeah, cover everything.” I paused. “If you can, will you let me know when you do find out who did it?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.” She stood. “Good luck with the dog bite.” She walked out, and I leaned back in my chair.

  I texted Liz to come see me now that I was in the office so we could both get on the same page.

  It wasn’t long before she was knocking on my door. I got up and let her in. The moment her eyes landed on the bandages, I held my hand up. “I got bit, it was crazy, I’m alive. That’s all I really want to say right now.”

  She nodded. “Well, sounds like an eventful day with the wolves. So let’s get down to business.” She laid some files out on the table. “While you were rescuing your boyfriend,” I didn’t miss the teasing in her voice. “I was researching. Our German warlock is quite hard to find. He’s only a rumor in our system, no matter the clearance.”

  “I expected that. Typically, any big person in the underground is going to come back like that.” I leaned back. “My contact said that if Vlemeinheil heard that someone was looking for them, he’d come find them.”

  “Let’s just hope it wasn’t in a threat. I checked with my buddy in internal affairs. Turns out that Thompson wasn’t stationed here. He was considered AWOL. His last case?”

  “The one he and Boss Man couldn’t close,” I guessed. “Any ideas?”

  She nodded. “I think we need to go through Boss Man’s files. I have a feeling he was still working on the case. He went undercover, Thompson found out, and now they are both missing.”

  “Maybe we can find something personal in there to do a tracking spell,” I added.

  Liz shrugged. “We know Boss Man, he’s very secretive and for a good reason. I dug further into the case files, and well, there were some dark things he had to tackle.”

  I sighed. “Okay.” I stood. “Let’s go pop into his office and see what we can find.”

  She nodded, and we walked out of the office and took the stairs. Liz stayed by my side the whole time. “How many times were you bit?”

  “Just twice. Hurts like hell, but I’ll survive. I’m lucky we can’t catch lycanthropy.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, because that’s the last thing we need to be dealing with. Magical werewolves.”

  And that was the truth. We got to the office and found the door open. I glanced at her. “Maybe he just went home for a little bit?”

  I went for my gun and let out a silent curse, I never grabbed it out of my trunk. Fuck.

  Liz glanced at me and then my empty holster. The look on her face told me I was in so much trouble when she could talk.

  She drew her gun and took point. She nudged the door open with her foot, and it swung open until it hit something with a little thunk. She jerked her head to tell me to go in. I had my magic if I needed to defend myself. I took a deep breath and swept into the room.

  Nothing to my right, and a body to my left.

  Fuck.

  Thompson was dead.

  Liz looked at the body and holstered her gun. “Not what I was expecting.”

  “Me either.” I pulled a glove out of my bag and used it to flip on the light. I didn’t want the chance of messing anything up.

  The body lay there, face down in a pool of blood. Dried brown splatters covered the wall. Judging by the bullet hole in the back of Thompson’s head, his face was probably gone. His arm was outstretched toward his gun. Interesting. “Call Mason.” There was no way to tell if this was a paranormal murder or not, but at first glance, it looked like someone had shot him.

  Liz stepped out of the room, and I heard her on the phone. There was no way internal affairs wasn’t going to get involved now. My phone rang, and I answered it without taking my eyes away from the body. “Special Agent Collins speaking.”

  “There once was a girl named Abigail,” the voice started.

  “Who followed a trail, she ended up dead, and became what she dread…” the voice cut out, and the line went dead.

  I swallowed. That was just a bit more creep factor than I wanted to add to my day. I shoved my phone into my pocket to deal with later. Liz stepped back into the room.

  “Mason said he’d be here in a few minutes and that we know the rules.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, let’s grab some PIB tape and tape the area off before anyone else decides to pay a visit to Thompson.”

  She nodded and walked down the hall, leaving me to guard the door. I don’t know what it was about the situation, but I felt like I was just waiting for Thompson to jump out of the room and yell ‘gotcha!’

  I pushed the feeling off and waited for Liz to get back with the tape, or Mason to get here with his crew so I could go back to my office and hide. Any time sirens came to PIB, the media wasn’t far behind. I didn’t want any media exposure right now.

  Liz came running back with the tape, and together we put it up over the door to keep anyone out. I had planned on going back to the office, but Liz sat on the floor against the hall wall. I followed her lead and looked at her.

  She smiled up at me. “Hell of a case, Abby.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.” I snorted. “Now what? Main suspect dead. Internal affairs will be coming in. Think it can be your buddy?”

  “I might be able to arrange that.” She nodded. “I think it might be better for us. He’d keep us in the loop, unlike the bombing.”

  I cringed. I’d almost forgotten about that investigation. “Any ideas on that?”

  “I’ve been trying to check the notes, but they haven’t really been putting them in the system. Just want we’ve expected, magically linked explosions, no suspects.”

  I pressed my lips together. “There was a kid that warned me about the bombings. At the time, he couldn’t see the person. I wonder if his vision has become any clearer.”

  “After we deal with this, why don’t we go talk to him.”

  That meant going back to the campus. “Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll know Boss Man’s secret too.”

  She nodded and stood. I was going to ask why, but then I heard them too. The sound of sirens coming toward PIB. Mason was on his way with his crew.

  I crossed my arms. “Our only suspect is dead.”

  “I don’t think he knew where Boss Man was. I think he was hoping to use his position to help him find Boss Man.”

  I sighed because I knew she was right. “But that
means we still have one missing PIB agent, their unsolved case, one other body, and three explosions.”

  “That’s a hell of a list.” Liz laughed. “And your werewolf business?”

  I cringed. “Well, Simon’s good, but there are some complications that I was not prepared for. So we’ll see how that all plays out.”

  The elevator dinged, and we both looked down the hall to see Mason and a few crime scene people exit. Mason cracked a grin over the tape. “Glad to see you secured the scene.”

  “I know my stuff. Go on in, let us know what you find, and if the case is ours.”

  Mason nodded and looked at the bandage on my arm. “Rough day?”

  “Something like that.” I made a note to grab my sweater from the car later to keep from answering the same question over and over. “We’ll be in the office when you get done with this.” I motioned to the scene.

  Mason nodded. “Don’t go too far. I want to talk to you both.”

  I wanted to ask if we were suspects, but that was a stupid question. We were suspects. We found the body, he had a bullet through his head, and that meant every PIB agent could be potential suspects.

  “Promise we won’t leave the campus.”

  A magical buzz went through me, and I looked at Liz. She gave a shake of her head as if to tell me it wasn’t her. Two seconds later, a crashing noise echoed through the building as the ground shook.

  I waited for an explosion to come.

  I waited for anything to happen that would give me a clue on how to react.

  Liz had her hand on the wall as if preparing to cast a spell on it. Mason looked at me, but the rest of the crew ran to the window in Boss Man’s office.

  “Mason, come take a look!”

  Boss Man’s office overlooked the parking lot. I closed my eyes, and Liz started laughing.

  “I know exactly what you’re thinking, Abby.”

  “It better not be my fucking car.”

  “Not just yours!” Mason called from the office.

  Well, that was reassuring.

  Liz let out a curse as she ran into the office. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

  I calmly walked in, avoiding the body and anything I thought might have looked like blood splatter, and then went to the window.

  There, in the middle of the parking lot, was a giant sinkhole. The asphalt had caved down the middle, cracking into almost a perfect circle, as if all the dirt below it just suddenly disappeared. And I was willing to bet that’s exactly what happened.

  There was already a crowd gathering outside, gawking at the emergency vehicles that were sliding down into the pit, joining the other cars.

  I looked at Mason and shrugged. “I’m going to call for my Hummer.”

  Liz opened and closed her mouth, looking like a fish. “Your car curse spread to mine!”

  “It’s not just yours. Maybe crews will pull it out and it’ll be fine.”

  A crunch was heard as an ambulance fell into the sinkhole and hit Liz’s car. “Or not.”

  She growled and turned away from the window. I tried not to laugh and reminded myself she didn’t go through a car every six months or so like I did. “Well, Mason. I’m going to head to my office. Let me know about the body. I’m going to call Levi and let him know I need the Hummer at sundown.”

  Mason chuckled. “I’ll see you in a little bit, Abby.

  I sat behind my office desk, spinning side to side as I stared at the screen. Vlemeinheil was a ghost, just as Liz said. A handful of rumors and mentions scattered throughout the files. Nothing really there to go off of. A warlock who didn’t really exist in the systems or in reality. If there was one person who knew about that kind of warlock, it’d be my uncle.

  I sighed and picked up the phone.

  “Good afternoon, Abigail. I saw the news, I assume that your car is in the pit?”

  I snorted. “It is. I’m not calling about that though. I’ll have Levi bring me the Hummer later. Really, we all should have expected this by now.”

  “Do we know what caused the sinkhole?”

  “Magic, but I have something to ask you. What do you know about a Warlock named Vlemeinheil.”

  Oliver was quiet for a moment. “He’s a very powerful man, and many people go to him for unusual magic. Almost an old school spiritualist type of warlock. The kind you hear stories about from the old days.”

  “You sound like you know him personally.” I leaned back in my chair. “Boss Man was looking for him.”

  There was more silence on the other end, long enough for me to think he had hung up. “Oliver?”

  “Sorry, I’m trying to imagine what the head of your branch would want from Vlemeinheil.” Oliver sighed. “I know him well. He and I have performed magic together. I will see if I can get a hold of him for you.”

  “That’s awfully helpful of you, thank you. I’ll see you tonight?”

  He hmmed for a moment. “Oh, yes, for dinner.”

  We’d started almost weekly dinners a few months ago. I was starting to look forward to them. We’d missed one here or there, but it was nice to be with Oliver once he’d started showing a bit of a different side. Especially since I had killed Ira. “Yeah, for dinner.”

  “Yes, we’re still on for dinner. I’ll see you then, Abigail.” He disconnected the call.

  I shook my head and put the phone down. Having odd contacts was starting to pay off for this case. That was assuming internal affairs didn’t come in and take it from us.

  I called Levi next and left a voicemail.

  “I’m sure you’ll see the news, but a magical sinkhole opened up at PIB and ate some cars. Mine included. I’d appreciate the Hummer in time to go see Oliver for dinner.”

  I hung up and went back to the computer screen. There had to be something else that we were missing. Some piece of information that we overlooked. Boss Man was missing, his old partner was dead. A person he trusted to take over his spot wanted nothing to do with the situation. And he had a secret.

  We were missing that secret. Liz and I couldn’t leave the grounds until we were cleared by Mason, but we needed to get back to the academy. I had a feeling the answer was there.

  Liz walked into the office without knocking. It was rare, but typically it happened because she was excited about something or I was in trouble. The frown and clenched jaw told me that I was most likely in trouble.

  “Agent Crawford is missing, and Agent Porter would like to bring you in for questioning.”

  Hm. “Interesting. As a suspect?”

  “Yes, Abigail, as a suspect.” She crossed her arms. “Look, I don’t know what happened to Agent Yorkingson, but I can’t get you out of them bringing you in as a suspect.”

  I smiled, and I couldn’t help myself. “You realize that I could be a suspect in two cases now? You know that Mason’s looking at us as possible suspects until he can clear us, and now Porter thinks I had something to do with a PIB agent disappearance.”

  “Two, actually.” Porter walked into my office. The door must not have shut all the way.

  Liz closed her eyes and looked defeated for a moment. My first instinct was to have a snarky comment about him walking in uninvited, but instead, I stood. “Agent Porter, welcome to my office. Please have a seat.”

  “I’d prefer if we talked in the interrogation room.”

  I smiled. “I’m sure you would, but I told Detective Mason that I wouldn’t leave my office until he was able to clear Agent Jefferson and me as suspects of a scene crime. So, I’m kind of stuck here.”

  Liz opened her eyes as if she finished counting to ten and nodded. “That’s true. Porter, you’re welcome to grab another agent as a witness.”

  Porter stepped up to the desk. “Agent Jefferson, you’ll do just fine as a witness. I don’t think you have anything to gain by protecting Agent Collins.”

  I settled back into my chair and motioned to Porter to sit down. “As I’m required to disclose, I do have a protection spell in the room. It’s rune ba
sed, the rune is on the bottom of the stand for the creepy doll.”

  Porter’s eyes went to the doll and then to me.

  “Yeah, I know, it’s weird.” I shrugged. “Now, let’s get this interrogation started, shall we?”

  He nodded and drew a truth rune on my desk. “Put your hand on the circle, now please.”

  Truth runes were tricky. I wouldn’t be able to lie. He could ask me anything, and I might be able to skim around the truth, but outright lying wasn’t an option.

  I took a deep breath and put my hand on the rune. Magic shot through me as the spell took hold.

  “Nervous?” Porter watched me.

  “Truth spells always make me nervous, especially when dealing with a high-profile case.” It wasn’t a lie, so the spell didn’t tingle or warn me about anything that came out of my mouth. Not yet.

  “Do you know what happened to Agent Grayson Yorkingson.”

  He wasn’t pulling any punches.

  “Yes.” It wasn’t a lie, but I wasn’t going to expand on it. This wasn’t going to end well for me if I wasn’t careful.

  I saw Liz’s eyes widen. She didn’t know that I shot Grayson. That part wasn’t in any paperwork or records.

  Porter smirked, and I knew the look. He thought me had me. “What happened to Grayson, Agent Collins.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’m not at liberty to say. It deals with the Vampire King, and as we all know, those are secrets I can’t give out.” The spell tingled up my arm a little bit, but it was enough of the truth that the spell wasn’t going to force me to talk.

  “Do you know who the vampire king is.”

  Fuck. Me.

  “Yes,” I growled out. “I believe you’re abusing your powers here. You and I both know you aren’t supposed to be talking about the King or who he is.” I tried to warn him.

  Porter shook his head. “Who is it? Agent Collins?”

  “I cannot say.” I ground my teeth. “This interview ends now.” I went to remove my hand, but Porter grabbed it and kept it over the rune.

  “The King’s Guard refuses to let me open the file of your case with Grayson. Why?”

  I glared at him. I glanced at Liz, who nodded. “Because I emptied an entire clip into Ira Diaz to make sure he was dead. He was trying to change me. There are people out to avenge him, and we needed to make sure those files stayed sealed so that I don’t become a target.”