“Crap.” Grimshaw breathed out the word. Then he pulled out his mobile phone and checked for messages. “Detective Kipp needs to see me ASAP.” He looked at Ilya.
<Go help Chief Grimshaw,> Natasha said. <I will assist Mr. Farrow.>
“Julian?” Grimshaw stared at his friend. “Will you be all right?”
“Yeah,” Julian said, wiping one hand across his mouth. “You go.”
Ilya followed Grimshaw out of the bookstore. “Natasha will look after him.”
“I don’t like any of this,” Grimshaw said as they crossed the street.
“That makes two of us.”
“Kipp?” Grimshaw nodded to the brown-skinned man who was the CIU team’s leader. “What have you got?”
Kipp gave them both a long look. “Was this some kind of ritual killing?”
“Why?”
Kipp crouched and pointed. “Because of that.”
Kipp moved out of the way. Grimshaw and Ilya crouched to have a look.
Swinging from a black thread tied to one of the exposed ribs were the feet and lower legs of a crow.
CHAPTER 18
Vicki
Thaisday, Novembros 1
Once everyone had been fed and sufficiently caffeinated and had wandered off to do whatever they were going to do, I stayed in the kitchen and tried to call Julian to deliver Michael Stern’s message.
The bookstore’s phone rang and rang and then went to voice mail. Julian’s mobile phone went to voice mail.
The bookstore wouldn’t be open yet, but I was surprised that Julian was ignoring both phones. Then I worried because he was meeting Chief Grimshaw and Ilya Sanguinati to discuss whatever they hadn’t mentioned to me about last night’s scary excitement.
Which was totally unfair because I should be informed if they knew something about the scary excitement. After all, it was my guests who could end up being eaten, because scary things did not live on dead donkey alone.
Then again, there was such a thing as too much information.
Ignoring the little inner voice that kept asking if I really wanted to know what the men knew, I called Ilya’s office—and got voice mail. I called his mobile phone—and got voice mail.
“If there was an emergency, we’d all be in deep doo-doo while you all did your manly talking,” I muttered. Unless they weren’t answering their phones because they were already dealing with deep doo-doo.
I hung up the wall phone in the kitchen and almost jumped out of my shoes when the darn thing rang right under my hand.
“The Jumble. Vicki speaking.” I sounded slightly squeaky, but still professional.
“Vicki?”
“Ineke?” She did not sound professional, which made my stomach take an unexpected roller-coaster ride, because anything that spooked Ineke Xavier could not be good.
“Is Chief Grimshaw there with you? No one’s answering the phone at the station, and I think his mobile phone is turned off. I wondered if he was playing a game of pool before work.”
Oh, golly. Really deep doo-doo, since she knew as well as I did that Grimshaw wasn’t a play-before-work kind of man. “Julian went to meet him and Ilya, but I haven’t been able to reach either of them.”
A beat of silence. Then Ineke said, “Would you give the chief a call? He’ll pick up the phone if it’s you.”
I’d call that optimism over reality. Then again, if the designated trouble magnet calls the chief of police, you have to figure there is trouble.
And then I wondered why Ineke hadn’t called Officer Osgood. He still lived at the boardinghouse and wouldn’t dare ignore a phone call from her. But Ineke was my friend, so I said, “Sure. What do you want me to tell him?”
She told me.
Eventually I realized I was sitting on the kitchen floor listening to a dial tone.
Eventually I stood up and placed a call to Grimshaw’s mobile phone, hoping I’d get lucky and get his voice mail, because he was not going to be a happy camper.
No such luck.
CHAPTER 19
Grimshaw
Thaisday, Novembros 1
Mr. Sanguinati and I collected a head and a severed forearm,” Grimshaw told Detective Kipp. “The body parts are at Ames Funeral Home, along with other evidence I collected last night. The student photo ID I found this morning in the victim’s wallet matches the head. That’s enough for me to say the head and these remains belong to Adam Fewks, and he was the individual who was at The Jumble last night dressed up as the Crowgard bogeyman.”
“Do you think we’ll find the rest of the body?” Kipp looked at Grimshaw, then at Ilya.
“You mean the organs? Unlikely,” Ilya replied.
They were lucky to have this much—something they all knew and wouldn’t say out loud.
Grimshaw’s mobile phone buzzed. Pulling it out of his pocket, he looked at the caller ID, then pushed the Talk button. “Ms. DeVine?”
“Hey, Chief. How’s it going?”
She sounded odd. Was she drunk at this time of the morning or reacting to some kind of anxiety medication? “Something I can do for you?”
“Yep. I was given a message for Julian. ‘Duplicity. And honey trap.’ ”
“‘Duplicity and honey trap’ ?”
“Yep. That’s the message from one of the guests staying in a lake cabin. Julian will understand.”
“Okay.” When all he heard was breathing, he said, “Anything else?”
“Ineke couldn’t reach you, so she asked me to give you a message because she figured you would answer the phone if the trouble magnet called, which I think is an unfair appellation since all I did the last time was make the phone call. Which, actually, is all I’m doing this time too. She’s hoping it’s just a prank.”
“Okay.” He was certain now that nothing was okay, including Vicki DeVine. “What is the message?”
Deep breath in, deep breath out. In. Out.
Finally she told him.
Maybe it was an unfair appellation, and he was certain she didn’t mean to be, but damn it, the woman really was a trouble magnet.
He disconnected and looked at Ilya and Kipp. “We’ve got another crime scene, at the Xavier boardinghouse. I’ll check it out first and make sure it’s not a hoax. Officer Osgood will stay here and assist Detective Kipp and his team.” He looked around but didn’t see the rookie.