“And do you have a name?” Duke asked. “Or are you happy to be called witch?”
She snorted. “When you say it in that tone, most certainly not. It’s Sabine. Sabine Fitzgerald.”
My eyebrows rose. The Fitzgeralds weren’t a royal line, so her mom had obviously married down. It also explained her blue eyes, because the so-called “lesser” witch lines tended to marry humans more often.
“When did you track Jack down to the reservation?” Duke asked.
“A week ago.”
“Then why wait so long to grab him?”
Sabine gave him a dark look. “And you call yourself a ranger?”
“Just answer the damn question.”
“Because I wanted to document the daily pattern of Kyle’s life to discover the best time to grab Jack.”
“You’re a witch,” Monty commented. “You could have just walked in and spelled him into compliance.”
“Yes, but I knew there were reservation witches here. Spelling Kyle would have left a tangible trace of magic that could have been used to either identify or track me. I had no desire for anyone to be aware of my involvement, even if Jessica does have rightful custody.”
“Kyle has friends in high places,” Jessica said. “It’s why he was able to avoid detection for so long.”
“So, what went wrong today?” Duke asked. “Why was Jack screaming?”
“Is this a formal interview?” Jessica asked. “Are we going to be charged?”
“You’ll be asked to make official witness statements,” he replied. “I’m also recording our conversation. But if what you say is true about Jack’s custody, I doubt it’ll go any further.”
The two women shared a glance, and then Jessica nodded.
Sabine grimaced. “Kyle picked Jack up from school around three-thirty. About fifteen minutes after they’d arrived home, this blonde appears and knocks on the door—”
“Describe her,” Duke cut in.
“Tall, extremely thin, spiky-style haircut, weird way of walking.”
“Define weird,” Monty said before Duke could.
“It wasn’t fluid, if that makes sense.” Sabine shrugged. “She looked to be in her late twenties, but she walked like an old woman with hip problems.”
“Was there any indication of magic?” I asked.
She hesitated. “There was no spell that I could see, but there was a weird sort of shimmer around her. If I had to guess what it was, I’d say an energy field of some kind.”
“There are vampires who are capable of producing illusion shields,” Monty said. “It’s possible we’re dealing with one of those.”
“Sunshine vaporizes vampires. Undisputed fact,” Duke said.
“In this reservation, nothing can ever be considered undisputed.” Monty’s voice was dry.
“A vampire?” Alarm touched Jessica’s expression. “My son was in the same house as a vampire?”
“Possibly,” Monty said. “But it obviously wasn’t after him, as evidenced by the fact Sabine was able to get him out.”
“What happened when the blonde knocked at the door?” Duke asked.
“Kyle answered and invited her in. I figured they knew each other, because by the time I got there, they were in the bedroom having sex.”
“And nothing seemed … odd to you?” I asked.
She raised an eyebrow, amusement lurking. “I didn’t go check how they were going about their business, if that’s what you mean.”
I half smiled. “No. I meant magically.”
She hesitated again. “There was a slight whiff of wrongness, but to be honest, I just grabbed the kid and got out of there.”
“So why was he screaming when you put him into the car?” Duke asked.
“Because I unwisely took my hand away from his mouth and he started yelling for Freddie. I had no idea who Freddie was, and there was no fucking way I was going back into that house, just in case Kyle got nasty.”
“Why would that bother you?” Monty asked. “You’re a strong enough witch to cope with anything a human could throw at you.”
“Anything except a bullet.”
“Kyle kept a number of handguns when we were married,” Jessica said. “We had to presume he was still doing so; he was on the run, after all.”
“So neither Kyle nor the woman came out of the house when Jack started screaming?” I asked.
Sabine shook her head. “Though to be honest, I didn’t look. I just drove away from that place ASAP.”
“And there’s nothing else you can add?” Duke asked. “You were tracking Kyle for a week—did you see him interact with the blonde at any other time? Or anyone else?”
“No. He pretty much kept to himself. Aside from school runs and shopping, his only other activity was a drink at the Railway Hotel every Saturday night.”
“Did he meet anyone there?”
“Not when I was watching, but he might have previously.” She shrugged.
“Did he take Jack with him?”
“No. The next-door neighbor watched him—Doris Hamberly, her name is. Middle-aged, retired teacher.”
“What did you plan to do once you had Jack?” I asked curiously. “If your ex was so well connected, it probably wouldn’t have taken him that long to track you down again.”
Jessica’s expression was cagey. “It’s not hard to completely disappear if you have the money and the right connections.”
Something I could certainly attest to.
“Right,” Duke said. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll take you both down to the station to make formal statements. You’ll need to stick around for a few days, just in case we have further questions, but I can’t see any reason for either of you to be charged.”
“Seriously?” Jessica asked, a mix of surprise and hope crossing her expression.
Duke nodded. “We werewolves don’t take kindly to people kidnapping kids and disappearing with them. I will point out, however, that if you’d come to us and explained the situation in the first place, we would have retrieved Jack from his father without any problem.”
“You really can’t blame her for not trusting rangers when the police were of little help,” Sabine said.
“And that’s the sort of thinking that will get you into trouble one day.” Duke glanced at Jessica. “Go collect your son and whatever you need to keep him happy at the station while we take statements.”
“We’ll accompany you, then catch a cab back to the crime scene,” Monty said. “Just in case.”
“Just in case what?” Sabine snapped before Duke could reply. “I’m not stupid enough to cause any trouble now that we’re both on tape.”
Monty raised an eyebrow, amusement evident. “We both know there’re spells that force compliance, and you’ve already admitted to having put in place the means to disappear.”
“Jessica and the kid, not me. I certainly wouldn’t risk the reputation of my business by spelling and stealing evidence.”
“Pleased to hear it,” Duke said. “But we’ll nevertheless all squash into the SUV, just to be safe.”