Pretty Witches All in a Row (15 page)

“She said it was because she likes to keep her personal life separate from her work life, and she didn’t think any harm would come of it because she didn’t have anything to do with it.  She also refused to provide an alibi for either murder, but I decided not to press too hard and let her get lawyered up just yet.  Unless we have something else to go on, she’s not going anywhere.”  Even now Nick had to admit with a grudging respect, she had played it well for the cards she’d been dealt. 

“Oh, I did get a hit on Cherrilyn Cotton, the person she’s been making regular quarterly payments on.  She is a minor child, eight years old, lives in Longview, Washington,” Park reported.  “It’s a trust account that the girl’s parents can’t touch.”

“Secret love child?”  Nick put it out there, it was certainly possible.  Eight years ago was a long time, and she’d never married.  She might not have been prepared to care for a child back then.

“Maybe.  Nelson, check into it, see if the kid’s adopted and if there’s any record of her ever having a child,” Troyer responded.  “Let’s meet back here at sixteen hundred for another briefing; hopefully we’ll have more back from forensics by then, maybe even some usable prints this time now that we have a real suspect.”

“Ah, Sergeant?” Nick stopped him.  “What about some protection for the remaining members of the coven?  Three down out of seven isn’t exactly great odds.  Chances are our killer will try for them again soon.”

“We don’t have the resources to put them under twenty-four hour surveillance.”  Troyer shook his head.  “Unless they want to come into protective custody, then we can keep them all in one place and babysit them.  Of course… that might kill our best chance at catching the guy the next time he strikes.”

“You mean use them as bait?”  Nick was appalled, that wasn’t the way he liked to do things, not one bit. 

“Why not?  If we pulled them all off the street, the killer will likely go pick some other pagan chick to stab; only we won’t have any idea where he’ll strike next.  No, for some reason he’s fixated on this group of witches, and I intend to use that to draw him out.”

“So that implies you’ll be watching them personally then?  Are we assigning shifts?  There’s four of them, six of us.  Five of them if you count wanting to keep eyes on Cahill as well.”  Regardless of what Troyer said, he had his own ideas about keeping an eye on a certain witch, at least between the hours of eleven PM and two AM.

“Not all of them.”  Troyer shook his head.  “So far all of the victims have been between the ages of twenty two and twenty six.  I’m thinking Granny Wentworth is probably safe in her bed at night.  So we’ll send a black and white to do a few extra patrols at night and consider her covered.  I’ll take Cahill tonight, Park and Brady you take the Cross woman, Trav and Willis you take Ryan and that leaves Spencer for you, Gibson.  Everybody green with that?” 

It didn’t escape his attention that his team had been assigned the least likely suspects and of course he’d take Cahill himself… “Yeah, that’s a plan,” Nick nodded, keeping the more choice words to himself.  Park and Brady nodded as well, and they all rose to file out of the briefing room.  Once out in the parking lot, Nick held his team back.  “Okay guys, I guess we’ll keep on keepin’ on.  Call me if you turn up anything interesting.  And ah, I’ll take Annaliese tonight, you guys take Rose, okay?”

Brady and Park traded looks, unable to keep the smiles from emerging.  “Yeah sure, no sweat.”

“You two seemed kind of cozy this morning, anything we should know about, Sir?” Park asked with a glint in her eye. 

“Nothing that needs mentioning,” Nick hedged, “but I don’t think Rose likes me.”  That and he’d much rather spend the night watching Annaliese.

Park’s phone chirped and she scrolled through the menu, drawing up the email.  “Looks like we’ve got the crime scene photos from Meiliyn’s place, I’ll forward them to you guys.” 

“Oh good.”  Nick cleared his throat.  “So, I’m gonna pop down to Argent Flame, officially apologize for the little visit Dumb and Dumber paid to Annaliese earlier, and see if she can contribute anything on the pictures like last time.  Hey, you also might want to call or stop by Ellie’s place, let her know that we’ll have extra patrols in her area tonight, that might make her feel a little better about things.”

“We’ll stop by on the way to the precinct,” Brady nodded. 

“See you guys at four o’clock,” Nick nodded back, heading for his car.  Now the immediate question presented itself… what did you get for a witch to apologize for your colleagues acting like a pair of jackasses?

Chapter Nine

In the end he settled on chocolate; hadn’t she said something before about not being able to resist it?  Nick stopped by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for some of the good stuff; a hand picked assortment of truffles, guaranteed to make any woman swoon. 

Argent Flame was doing a much brisker business when he arrived.  Touristy clusters of people exclaimed over objects on the shelves, as well as the regulars calmly sipping tea from the comfy chairs sprinkled around the shop.  He spotted Annaliese right away, chatting with a customer by the tall, floor to ceiling book cases built into what was once a library or study in the house’s original design.  Feather was busy making espresso drinks and dispensing muffins from behind the counter, and another employee ran the cash register.

Nick strolled through the shop, not wanting to disturb Anna in the middle of a sale.  Nevertheless he kept his eyes on her, dropping a quick wink when she chanced to look his way.  The startled look gave way to a glorious smile, and he was struck by the notion that every time he saw her, he found her more and more appealing.  Did it have to do with getting to know her better, or was he quickly falling under her spell?

“I brought you a bribe,” he smiled when she approached, producing the little gold box as an offering. 

“And here I was hoping this was a social call.”  Annaliese opened the box, inhaling with delight as the chocolate truffles came into view.  “Uh oh… this is quite a bribe, what is it that you want me to do?”  She fixed him a penetrating gaze, eyes narrowing. 

“I suppose it’s a little bit of both,” he admitted, openly admiring the look on her face as she breathed in the decadent aroma of the chocolate.  “Consider it partly a bribe and partly an apology.”

“An apology for what?”

“I heard you had a visit earlier, from a couple of detectives.”

Annaliese snapped the box closed then, her expression losing some of its warmth.  “Yes, I did,” she said shortly. 

“Look, I know I said I’d call as soon as I found out about what happened to Meiliyn…”  She’d been so worried after her dream, but he hadn’t had the presence of mind to follow through on his promise.  “Things got kinda crazy after we got the call, and now with this new team working on the case…”

A sad shake of the head was given, her eyes taking on a haunted look at the change in subject.  “Don’t worry about it; I know you have a job to do.  It was just… jarring to find out about it from those guys.  They don’t exactly have great people skills, you know?”  Her lips twisted into a rueful smile.

“That’s putting it mildly,” Nick snorted.  “Anyway, I thought I’d stop by and apologize in person, and offer my condolences.”  Condolences.  He’d never done that on a case before, but Annaliese was fast becoming more than a case to him. 

“Thank you,” Annaliese nodded, and he could see the strain on her now.  The smudge of shadows beneath her eyes that he’d missed that morning, indicating she’d had a rough night.  With three close friends gone, the toll it was taking on her was obvious. 

“How are you holding up?”  Nick placed his hands on her shoulders, lightly brushing over them in a comforting gesture. 

“I’ve had better days, that’s for sure.  I feel like if I slow down and let myself cry, I might never stop.  But I’m trying to stay busy, that helps to keep the worst of it at bay, if I keep my mind occupied.”

“Yeah, things are hopping here.”  Looking around, it almost seemed busier in the short amount of time he’d been there.

“It almost feels… wrong though.  I wonder if I should close the store down for a few days until some of this blows over?”

“Is that what you want to do?  It might not be too bad of an idea, take a few days off.”

“I don’t know…” she shook her head miserably.  “Like I said, keeping busy helps.  I might lose my mind if it’s me sitting here by myself, waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“How many shoes are you expecting to drop?”  His brows came up a fraction.

“Until you catch him?  Four more by my count.” 

A note of despair crept into her voice and he hated to hear it there.  Gathering her up into his arms, he gave her what comfort he could.  “We’ll catch him Annie, I give you my word,” he said softly into her hair. 

“Are you any closer to finding out who’s doing this?” she sniffed against his lapel. 

“Sure we are; we’re making progress,” he nodded, pulling back to look into her eyes.  “And we’ve got twice the resources on this now, that’ll make a big difference.”  Troyer’s team might not be his first choice, but the Captain was right, the more heads in on it, the better.  “I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”  Her eyes met his, and he was both relieved and a little scared to see that trust shining back at him.  Annaliese nodded briefly, a tremulous smile reaching her lips.  “In fact, I’ll be watching out for you personally tonight, your own private watchdog.”

“What, like a stakeout outside tonight?” she asked, surprise clearly etched on her pretty features. 

“Yep, bad coffee and all.  So you should be able to sleep tight tonight.”

“What about you?  When are you going to sleep?”

“I’m gonna catch forty winks this afternoon, I’ll be good to go.” 

“So Mei was stabbed then?  No fire this time?” Annaliese asked, her voice low. 

“I guess the killer didn’t feel the need to bother with the diversion this time, but it was definitely the same murder weapon.  Hey listen, that’s part of the reason why I came over, I wanted to show you a couple of the pictures of her room, see if anything leaps out at you.”

“Of course, anything I can do to help.”   

“I wish I’d been able to see the place before the attack, but I was never able to catch up with her.”  He shook his head, pulling up the file on his phone. 

“I have a pretty good idea why that was.” 

“What do you mean?”  Nick pulled up the pictures, quickly shuffling through the gorier ones to the less bloody ones he wanted. 

“Seraphine asked us not to talk to you after you first stopped by her office,” she admitted reluctantly and Nick blinked, taking a moment to process that little tidbit. 

“Why would she do that?

“She thought we should handle this ourselves.  That the police would get in the way… and that you had no business digging into our private affairs.”

“But you talked to me.”

“Well, you got to me before she called…”

“Yeah, but I came back later that same day, and you talked to me just fine.” 

“Well… you
got
to me before she called,” Annaliese repeated with a faint smile, changing the inflection in her phrasing a little.  “Plus, I believe in letting the professionals do their jobs, none of us are detectives.  Besides, she’s not the boss of me.”  Her chin came up a fraction.

“No, she’s not,” Nick agreed with a smile of admiration.  “I wonder if that’s why Rose has been… less than friendly to me as well?” 

“Has she?  Probably, I know Sera called all of us, not just me.  Normally Rose is a pretty friendly person, she and I go way back, she’s probably my best friend in the world.”

Turning his attention back to the pictures, he pulled up the one he wanted, showing the overturned altar.  “Take a look at this, whoever was in there trashed her stuff, we thought maybe he was looking for something, and you might be able to identify if there was anything missing?”  He passed her his phone.

A pucker appeared on her brow as she studied the little picture.  “It’s hard to say… I’ve been to Mei’s place before but never in her bedroom, so I’ve never seen her altar before.  I’m guessing she had all the usual components, but it’s hard to tell from this jumble if something’s missing.  It’s a little weird that all the candles are broken though, isn’t it?  Sure one or two from the fall, but look here; they’re all broken in half,” she pointed, handing the phone back to him. 

“Huh… good call, I hadn’t noticed that before.”  He took note of their positioning, zooming in on that part of the picture.  “So besides that, does anything leap out at you about the picture?”

“Not really, but it’s hard to tell from such a little image.  Do you have any others you wanted me to look at?”

“Yes...” he advanced a couple of frames and handed her the phone again.  “This one in particular.”  The picture in question depicted the carpet with the pattern of flowers.

“Wildflowers… just like in my dream,” Annaliese swallowed, her face twisting with pain.  “And she was stabbed… is this her blood?”

She was getting upset, he hadn’t counted on that, though he should have, he realized in hindsight.  “Yeah…”  He took the phone back, slipping it into his pocket and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders.  “Hey, I’m sorry; I forget not everyone’s used to looking at pictures of crime scenes, especially of their friends.”

“No, it’s alright; I’d like to help if I can.  You said you had some leads, was that a PR line or did you mean it?”

“No, I meant it.”  He wasn’t supposed to discuss ongoing cases with the public, but she wasn’t exactly the public.  Anna was in it up to her eyeballs, and if it helped her stay safe, he was willing to bend the rules.  “Do you remember the interview we saw on the news at my place?”  Was it just the day before?  It seemed like much longer.  “With Reverend Cahill?”

“You think he had something to do with this?”

“He’s looking like our strongest suspect so far.  Why, you don’t think he could do it?”

“I guess there’s no reason why a man of the cloth couldn’t be capable of murder,” she considered aloud.  “I don’t personally like him, but I never thought he would take ‘thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’ to such an extreme.”