Pretty Witches All in a Row (30 page)

“I never told any of my congregation to hurt anyone, not directly.” 

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” Gibson shook his head.  “All I know is,
I
wouldn’t want to be standing in your shoes come judgment day.”

* * *

Once out in the car again, Nick checked, but still no word from Annaliese.  Frowning to himself, he dialed her number again, scowling when it went to voicemail.  “Hey, you’re starting to freak me out a little bit.  How about you give me a call, okay?  I’m gonna stop by the precinct and pick up a file, and then I’ll probably head over to your place.  If you get me in time I’ll even let you pick where I stop for lunch, my treat.  Otherwise I’ll probably end up with something greasy.  So… call me.”  God, how desperate did he sound?  She was probably fine; it hadn’t been all that long since his first call.  Ah, if Veronica could see him now, he’d never hear the end of it, he realized with a chuckle.

A few minutes later he pulled into his usual spot, riding the elevator up to his desk, tossing a wave at Detective Park who sat deeply engrossed in a file.  “Good reading?” he asked, moving to his desk that wasn’t too far away. 

“This Goedel woman’s case history is sad; the system really failed her.  She keeps getting picked up for irrational behavior and ending up in various state facilities.  They write her a prescription for some meds and show her the door.  There’s no continuity of care, no one tracking her progress over the years… you’d think someone would have clued in to her extensive history and gotten her some help.  The records are all here in one central file, nobody ever bothered to look,” Park replied, a mixture of sadness and disgust on her face. 

“I guess as long as she was just a nuisance she never made a blip on anyone’s radar,” he shrugged.  “I’m gonna take my copy and head over to Annaliese’s place, keep an eye on her.  Did you guys turn up anything on Goedel’s family?”

“She has a mother living in an adult assisted living facility in Beaverton, Brady’s on his way out there right now.  It’s a little harder to get a line on her friends and known associates.  Did Cahill offer anything when you talked to him?”

“Not so much.  He was too busy swooning over the sound of his own voice to say anything useful.  More of the same claptrap he was spouting last night, that she made her choice to stand with God and save her soul, blah, blah, blah.”  He fanned a hand back and forth.

“You should see if Annaliese and what’s left of the coven will hold a séance, then we can find out if Goedel’s our woman, or if we need to be looking in another direction.”

“Hey, that’s not a bad idea, I’ll ask her about it when I go over there.”  Nick picked up the file and tucked it under his arm.  “You know how to reach me if anything comes up.  I’ll check in later.”

“You got it, boss,” Park replied in a credible impression of Brady’s light tone, she even supplied a little half salute.

Nick smiled all the way back to the elevator; it was nice to see Park coming out of her shell a little.  He was so glad he hadn’t been saddled with a couple of assclowns like Nelson and Willis.  It would have made work unbearable; or vaguely entertaining if he found himself in the position of having to make them run all manner of unpleasant errands until they lost those smug smiles.  That might make working with them almost amusing, though not as productive as his current working relationship with his team. 

Another quick check to his phone and still no word from Annaliese.  Without bothering to call her again, Nick drove over to Argent Flame, gratified to find the front still dark with the closed sign out and locked up tight.  Going around to the back kitchen door, Nick knocked, waiting patiently for her to answer the door.  Long seconds ticked by with no response and his worry kicked into overdrive.  “Anna?” he called out, knocking a little harder.  When another two minutes passed with no reply, he tried the door, both pleased and chagrined to find it locked.  Breaking in was starting to sound like a very reasonable option when he suddenly thought to check something. 

Leaning down, he lifted the welcome mat by one corner, sure enough; there was a key under the mat.  “You’ve gotta be kidding me…” he muttered, disgusted by the sight of it.  What good was locking her door if she left a key right there?  The key turned easily in the lock, and a few seconds later he was in her kitchen, standing stock still with his head cocked to one side, listening. 

The place seemed off without any music playing, he noticed that right off the bat.  A quick search of the ground floor revealed it to be deserted as he’d thought, and he started up the back stairs, a curious sound reaching his ears as he crested the landing. 

It was a rhythmic squeaking sound, steady like metal grinding on metal or possibly rubber.  Nick crept towards it, as it seemed to be coming from Annaliese’s sitting room.  The sound grew louder as he approached, making him wince every time it squeaked.  If someone were to tie him up and force him to listen to it for an hour or two he might happily poke his eardrums out in retaliation.  He burst through the open door, not quite sure what to expect, a whoop of laughter leaving his lips as he found her running on an exercise machine he remembered seeing infomercials for late at night, earbuds in her ears with music blaring loudly.  The quick motion was enough to catch her peripheral vision however, and she nearly broke her neck as she jumped in fright over the sudden intrusion.

“Jesus Christ, Nick!  What is wrong with you?” Annaliese demanded, pulling the headphones out of her ears and pulling herself back up to her feet, breathing raggedly.   

“I’m sorry!”  He flashed her his best smile, trying not to laugh at the look on her face.  “I was worried about you.  You didn’t answer my calls and… what are you doing?”

“Exercising, what does it look like?” Annaliese huffed, disengaging herself from the glider and picking up a purple plastic bottle filled with ice water.

“I… it seems so… normal,” Nick shrugged.

“And I’m not normal?”  The look she gave him spoke volumes.

“You, normal?  Hell no,” he replied off the cuff.  “I mean that as a compliment Annie, I swear,” he backtracked quickly, wondering how to dig himself out of this one, especially when it was so hard not to smile over her discombobulated expression.

“Uh huh,” she replied, not entirely convinced.  “Do you want to tell me why you’re sneaking through my house?  How did you get in here anyway?”  Anna caught up a towel and dabbed it to her forehead and neck.

Nick perched on the arm of her couch.  “I was worried about you, and you couldn’t hear me knocking with those things on,” he gestured to the earbuds.  “It doesn’t do you a whole hell of a lot of good to lock the place up if you leave a key under the welcome mat, by the way.”  Nick fixed her with a stern look, recovering some of the righteous indignation that had propelled him through the house originally.

“Oh… right.  I forgot about that.”  She gave him a sheepish grin, tossing the towel aside and plopping down on the couch beside him.

“I swear, I should wring your neck myself to spare me the heartbreak of anything happening to you,” Nick muttered, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.

“Aw, you’d be heartbroken if something happened to me?” she smiled winsomely up at him.

“Yeah, I think I would,” Nick answered seriously.  “I mean that in a purely non-stalkerish manner.  I know we’ve only known each other for a few days,” he added quickly. 

“It’s okay, you can be heartbroken over me, I don’t mind.”  Her smile widened as she picked up his hand.

“I’d rather not, actually.  I’d rather you stayed safe and spared me the heartbreak altogether.  It’s not a pretty sight, junk food, sweat pants, country music… the whole shebang.”

Annaliese chuckled, kicking off her shoes and socks and slipping her bare feet up on the coffee table.  “So, how did the briefing go?”

“Oh right, I wanted to talk to you about that.”  Nick sat forward a little, his eyes losing their playful glint and focusing sharply again.  “Have you ever heard of a woman named Norma Goedel?”  He retrieved the file from under his arm, flipping it open to the woman’s picture.

“Norma…”  Annaliese studied the picture carefully before shaking her head.  “No, she doesn’t look familiar to me, sorry.  Why, is she a suspect or did she turn up dead too?”

“No, she’s not dead; she’s a member of Cahill’s congregation who is undergoing investigation.  Take another look; she was supposed to be pretty heavily involved in the occult a few years ago.”

Anna took the picture and peered at it closely.  “No, I’m sorry, I don’t think so.  Then again, a lot of people come into my shop; I don’t always know them all or see them more than once.  You think she might be involved though?”

“I’m not convinced.  She’s got a history of some pretty crazy behavior, but nothing too violent.  Right now she’s going through a born again phase, courtesy of the Reverend Cahill and his church.  Troyer seems to think she’s got high potential as a suspect, given the piece of communion host that was found at Seraphine’s and the way she was killed that suggested baptism.”

“But you don’t think so?”  She handed him back the photo, watching him carefully.

“Well… no.  Something about her doesn’t feel right.  Our killer is too crafty, keeps changing things up, but covering enough of her tracks to throw us off.  I think the communion wafer was a big fat red herring, designed to make us look in the wrong direction.  Plus there’s your thing… the divine thing you did.”

“The divination?”

“That’s the one.  It said you knew the killer and you don’t know this Norma, right?”

“Wow, I didn’t think you lent that much credence to that sort of thing.”

“I believe in you.  Plus, I think there’s a lot more going on here than can be readily explained,” he said carefully. 

“Thank you Nick, that means a lot to me,” Annie replied, her face thoughtful and maybe a little stunned at his admission. 

“I’m not ready to subscribe to the potion of the month club or anything, but like I keep saying, I’m willing to keep an open mind.  Hey, that reminds me, what about holding a séance to try and contact the dead and see if they can tell us who killed them?” 

“A séance?  Mmmm I don’t know about that.  Messing with the dead is risky.  For one thing, it’s a lot harder than it looks without a conduit.  Also, there’s no guarantee you can reach who you want to.  Sometimes spirits will masquerade as others just to screw with you; it’s not a very reliable method for learning information.”

“I guess the afterlife must get kinda boring if they have to prank call us like that.  What’s a conduit?”

Her lips quirked into a smile.  “A medium, or a psychic that has made positive contact with the other side of the veil before.  I’ve never had that particular talent and as far as I know neither has Rose or Ellie.  I could ask around in the community but that could take some time, maybe longer than any of us has left.”

“Hey, none of that now.”  He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, drawing her close.  “You’re gonna be fine, I promise.  I won’t let anything happen to you.  We’ll keep Rose and Ellie safe too, whether they want us looking over their shoulders or not.”

“I’ve been thinking though, I might want to try a little experiment.”

“Uh oh, why do I not like the sound of that?  What kind of experiment?”

“We had fairly good success with the divination but we’re limited to the kinds of questions we can ask it.  Sure I could ask it if Norma is the killer, and we could eliminate her maybe, but we also know it can take a different interpretation on the question than we intended, like that question about Veronica’s hair.  Are you with me so far?”

“Yeah, so what did you have in mind then?”

“I was thinking about trying some divination that’s less specific, no questions, more like a meditation really.  For whatever reason, I’ve got a link to the killer, at least at the time of the deaths.  I might be able to pursue that link, try and force it open without a murder taking place.  It’s worth a shot at any rate.”  She gave a half shrug.

“Can you do that?”  His brows came up in surprise, though he’d been made a believer as far as the pendulum was concerned, he wasn’t sure how she would accomplish it. 

“I’m not sure.  I’ve had some success before with scrying using fire since it’s the element I have the greatest affinity for.”

“I’ll say you do.  Remind me to invite you over the next time I’m barbecuing by the way…”

Annaliese gave his abs a playful smack.  “I’m being serious, Nick,” she laughed in spite of herself.  “It might be a total bust, or maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to get into the killer’s mind and figure out who it is.”

“Sounds like a plan.”  He rubbed his hands against each other.  “When can you get started?  Do you have to wait for nightfall or the full moon or something?”

“No, I can do it now.  Though I think I’ll grab a quick shower first, to try and center my self a little.  Please, try not to be too distracting when I get out, okay?” she gave him a pointed look.

“I’ll be good, scout’s honor.”  He laid a hand over his heart.  “Or would you prefer it if I wasn’t around, would that make it easier?”

Annaliese shook her head, rising gracefully from the couch.  “No, you can stick around, as long as you behave.  It won’t be very interesting to watch though; pretty much it’ll look like me meditating, so if you have some place else you need to be I’ll understand.” 

Nick checked his watch.  “No, I’ll stick around if that’s okay.  I want to be here if you find anything or if you need me.”  Plus, he had a feeling like he needed to stick to her side, and he was going to go with it for as long as possible, unless Troyer specifically called him away.  Even then, he might be able to finagle a way for her to tag along depending on what the assignment was. 

“Feel free to hang around then, or help yourself to a snack or a book to read or whatever.”

His stomach rumbled, reminding him that he’d skipped lunch in his haste to get to her house and check in on her.  “Are you hungry?  I could make us some lunch if you trust me in your kitchen?”

“Mmm, no.  I’ll wait until after I try the scrying, I think that’ll be for the best,” she shook her head.  “You go on ahead, I trust you,” Annaliese smiled, her fingers tracing lightly over the line of his jaw.  “I’ll use mugwort this time, so we won’t be tempted to tear each other’s clothes off by the time we’re done.”