If that was even what we were up against. I almost wanted to tell myself that I’d been imagining things back at the accident scene, that the feelings of cold and dread I’d experienced were my own fear and unease talking, but I couldn’t quite convince myself of that. Something strange was definitely going on, even if I couldn’t quite identify what it might be.
“You have a point,” I said lightly. “Okay, I’ll call. But I’m sure everything will be quiet. Like you said, I’m only tangentially connected to all this.”
Calvin nodded. “Right. Take care — and turn on your alarm system.”
Because of course he’d noticed it when he came over for dinner. Alison Carruthers, the woman who’d renovated the property, had installed the alarm, although at the time, I’d found myself wondering if such measures were really necessary in sleepy little Globe. Now, though, I was damn glad of having a security system, even if I didn’t know for sure how much good it would do to ward off hexes and dark magic.
“I will.” I paused, then said, “Thanks for taking me along with you. I don’t think Chief Lewis was too thrilled about it, though.”
The grim look left Calvin’s mouth, and he actually appeared halfway amused. “Maybe someday I’ll tell you how much I don’t care about Chief Lewis’s opinion.”
I couldn’t help smiling. “Good to know — and good night.”
Still wearing that smile, I let myself in, then locked the door behind me and engaged the alarm system. I hadn’t turned it on when we left, mostly because Calvin and I had been in such a hurry.
It actually did give me a spurious sense of safety, although that sense only lasted until I heard Calvin’s SUV backing away from the building and moving down the alleyway that separated my place from the empty lot behind it. My smile disappeared as well.
Damn, I really wished I hadn’t been such a coward about asking him to stay.
I mounted the stairs to find Archie sitting in the entry of my apartment, tail flicking back and forth in irritation. “Are you going to come and go at such odd hours every time that man visits you?”
Considering this was only the second time Calvin had come over to my apartment, I thought Archie was being a bit melodramatic. “I don’t know,” I said. “But a woman I know died in a car accident tonight, so I’d appreciate you showing a little respect.”
For Archie, he looked almost ashamed. Or at least, he ducked his head and pretended to rub it against his foreleg, as if he didn’t quite know how to react to such a statement. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
I doubt it, I thought, but I decided it was better not to push things. If nothing else, he was pretending to be shamefaced, and I figured that was a start. As for the rest….
“You’re actually lucky we had to go out,” I remarked. “Otherwise, I don’t know where things might have been headed.”
That vague allusion was enough to make his eyes flare wide in alarm. “You wouldn’t.”
“This is my house, Archie,” I told him. “If I want to do the horizontal hokey-pokey with the world’s hottest chief of police, that’s my prerogative. You can go hide under the dining room table or something while we’re doing the deed.”
His tail whipped back and forth. “Just let me out before you get started,” he shot back. “I’ll make sure to stay far, far away.”
“It’s a deal,” I said. “Anything else? It’s late, and I’m tired.”
“No,” he replied. “I think that is all.”
“Good.”
Without waiting to see if he wanted to respond, I headed into the bedroom and shut the door, glad that the apartment had been renovated with an en suite bathroom so I wouldn’t have to emerge again that night. I kicked off my shoes and removed my jewelry, placing it in the little handmade ceramic dish I’d bought at a street fair in Santa Monica years ago.
I hadn’t been lying to Archie when I’d said I was tired. Exhausted, actually, even though I realized when I glanced over at the clock on my bedside table that it really wasn’t all that late. A little past ten, no more, and I often stayed up past midnight, especially if I needed to perform a moon ritual or set out my crystals to recharge at a particular time.
But the moon was waning, and I didn’t have plans for any more rituals until the new moon on April twenty-second, not quite two weeks away.
Problem was, when I laid my head on the pillows and closed my eyes, my brain didn’t seem to have gotten the memo that my body was ready to get some rest. Instead, my thoughts kept racing, trying to find patterns where none seemed to have yet emerged.
I didn’t find it too hard to believe that Lucien had driven someone to murder, but why Athene? Was this unknown killer a person who thought himself so wronged by the former head of GLANG that he couldn’t be content with just getting rid of the man in charge, but had to murder Lucien’s right-hand woman as well?
And all right, I knew I was mentally assigning a gender to this unknown killer when no one knew who he — or she — really was. I supposed the murders could have been committed by a woman, but I didn’t think so. My instincts were telling me otherwise.
Great. So now I’d narrowed the suspect down to a little less than half the planet’s population.
I rolled over on my side and stared moodily at the faint glow of the streetlights beyond the blinds. In the past, the light had never bothered me, because it certainly wasn’t bright enough to really disturb my sleep. That night, though, it seemed as if not much was required to keep me awake.
All right. I told my brain that a tired and cranky witch wasn’t an effective witch, but those inner admonitions didn’t seem to help much. Letting out a sigh, I shifted onto my back again, figuring I usually fell asleep that way, so I might as well increase the odds.
And what was going on with Violet Clarke? I couldn’t imagine her as a cold-blooded killer — especially not one as powerful as the magical residue at the crash site seemed to indicate — but she wasn’t exactly acting like an innocent party, either. I wished I’d pressed Athene to tell me more about what Violet had said when she showed up in Globe. But since the subject had obviously been a sore one, I’d decided to let it go…and now I had very little to work with.
As I stared up at the ceiling, I tried to catalog the other magical practitioners in the greater Los Angeles area, doing my best to determine whether any of them might be behind this whole mess. None of them seemed powerful enough, though — or motivated enough. I wouldn’t say that any of us had really liked Lucien, but neither had we harbored the kind of animus that would result in murder. Pretty much everyone — myself included — had done what we could to stay out of his orbit.
You don’t have to solve this tonight, I told myself, my inner voice doing its best to sound reassuring.
I wasn’t reassured, though.
Who knew what might happen while I was asleep?
14
Stones and Spirits
As far as I could tell, no catastrophes had occurred overnight. Because it was Monday and the shop was technically supposed to open at eleven, I dutifully got out of bed and went through my morning routine — coffee and yogurt and yoga — then pulled my one card for the day from my crow Tarot deck.