Witch Hearts (12 page)

“Who were they?” she pressed.
 

He shrugged. “I didn’t know all of them. There was some sort of hierarchy I was never privy to. All I knew was I was glad to never meet the heads of the club. They sound pretty vicious.”

“Either way, your guys and/or the murderer like to leave love notes.”
 

“Court didn’t seem to think the two things were related. Could she be right?” Even Cooper couldn’t hide the twinge of desperate hope in his voice.
 

“She said it was only coming back in pieces,” Ruby reminded him. “I don’t know if we’ll have that answer until we find our killer. We can’t rely on her to get us anywhere, not the way she is right now.”

Ruby didn’t want to blame Cooper or make him believe he had a part in Courtney’s death. This would be hard enough without adding guilt on top of that. She didn’t think, however, that they should give up on this lead just yet. Even if it wasn’t the same group, perhaps they could point Ruby in the right direction.
 

If she had the guts to try and face them.
 

A million dollars. Courtney had hidden a million dollars for her brother and never once mentioned it to Ruby. Aside from that initial surprise, how would she and Cooper know where to begin looking? Ruby wanted to confront these men that had left Courtney that note, but Cooper argued against it. If he didn’t have the money, he said, they would kill him on the spot. He didn’t say what they might do to Ruby.

The idea was a bad one, Ruby knew, but it was the only plan they had. Where else were they supposed to get information on Courtney’s murder? She even suggested she go alone but Cooper wouldn’t hear it. After a short debate, he grudgingly agreed to call in a favor to an old friend.
 

They agreed to meet the next day in a coffee shop. Mutual territory, Ruby guessed, but that was fine with her. Cooper, who hadn’t said much since Courtney’s visit, spent the entire morning out of her apartment. They arrived earlier than the agreed time so that Cooper could pick the booth. It was only when they sat with their coffee that Ruby decided to ask what she’d been wondering since the plan came together.
 

“Who is this guy? And you know him how?”
 

Cooper shot her a warning look. “He’s…a guy I knew back then.”

“I know that much,” she said, swatting at the air in annoyance.

He frowned, considered his next choice of words. “Darren gets mixed up in stuff when he thinks there’s money in it for him, but he’s also a coward. He’s been lucky to survive as long as he has but he knows it.”

Ruby’s head cocked to the side in question but Cooper abruptly motioned to stay quiet. Footsteps sounded beside her as a figure maneuvered around a table and slid into the empty side of their booth.
 

Cooper’s friend wore a battered old jacket, unzipped to show his worn AC/DC shirt. She saw only the top of a stained trucker hat, its owner looking down at his lap as he whispered to them. “We okay here man? You sure?”

Cooper chuckled. “Darren, you know I don’t want that kind of heat. I’m careful.”

“Yeah, well, it’s definitely no secret you’re back in town. They know one was your sister. I’m sorry for your loss, by the way.”
 

Darren lifted his head to look at Cooper as he apologized and Ruby saw his face. Darren had to be in his late forties, his gaunt face covered by the hat brim and a coarse, graying brown beard. Darren’s hazel eyes flicked toward her for a split second and went back to Cooper. He jerked his head at Ruby.

“She good?”
 

“Darren, man, you gotta relax. This is my friend Ruby.” Cooper rapped the table with his knuckles; Darren’s attention jerked back to him, away from the front door where all was calm.

“What? Oh, Ruby, yeah.” Darren swung his gaze to Ruby and nodded at her in greeting. “So why am I here, in broad daylight in a coffee shop?”

“That’s exactly why you’re here,” Cooper said, rolling his eyes. “Skulking around in the alleys in the dark is shady as hell and something I don’t do anymore. Tell me what you know about the murders.”

Darren shrugged, a twitchy motion that also came with ex-junkies, Ruby realized. Much like Cooper way back when, this guy was hooked on magic surges and right now he was going through withdrawal. She shot a look at Cooper who ignored her pointed glare and prompted Darren again. The tired old witch sighed, gave another look over his shoulder and back to them.

“I don’t think it’s
them
, man,” he said, putting special emphasis in his facial expression to Cooper. He shrugged in jerky little motions, the words spilling out of his mouth as fast as possible. “This don’t feel right, don’t feel like them. Too…I dunno, they’re so cold about shit, they’ll slit your throat and walk away.”
 

Too late, he realized his words and winced at Cooper as though waiting for an explosion, but Cooper remained still. Too still. Ruby saw him swallow hard and she stepped in to officiate.

“So you’re saying these murders, the girls, it seems too personal?”

Darren nodded at her, his haunted hazel eyes resting on her. “Exactly. I uh, I’ve been askin’ around, I know some people who know people and overhear shit, you know, and what that bastard did to those girls…” He risked a glance at Cooper and pushed forward. “Well, it seems like he took some care with them.
 
Sounds almost respectful; uniforms say they find ‘em in the river, but they’re tied down to something so they don’t float away. They’re face up, arms crossed, real peaceful-like and shit, you know?”

Ruby didn’t know but nodded at him to continue anyway.

“None of ‘em raped, some bruises and stuff around the arms and legs. So he’s not even beating them up and Coop, I ain’t gotta remind you, but you know that’s not their style. They like to draw blood, want to see red. They don’t care if you’re hurt.”

Darren seemed to pull back into himself, concerned tirade over and suspicion back on. He straightened his back against the booth, risked a peek behind his shoulder again. His nervous, ragged fingers tapped the table and Ruby laid a hand over his to calm him. Darren looked up at her again and Ruby spoke with a quiet tone.

“Let’s say it’s not them. Darren, I’m not asking any favors from you, but I considered meeting with your, uh, friends to discuss the possibility of who this guy might be or how to catch him.”

Before she even finished her sentence, Darren was shaking his head, whipping it back and forth with panicked fervor.

“Bad idea, Ruby, bad idea,” he babbled. Instead of withdrawing his hand as Ruby expected, he flipped their hands so that he was cradling hers, his shaky but strong grip warm on Ruby’s skin. “You don’t know ‘em like we do. They don’t like women and they don’t mind taking anger out on them. You’d be in danger and you’re too pretty for that.”

Ruby bit back a smile at the shy grin Darren spared her, a pink blush rising to his cheeks. “Well, thank you Darren, but I don’t know what else to do.”

Cooper finally spoke up, his low voice rough like gravel. “Tell us what else you know about the killer. He’s after Ruby now and I have to stop him.”

“
We
have to stop him,” Ruby corrected.
 

Darren laughed, a humorless sound that made Ruby’s heart sink. “You can’t stop him. He’s full of dark magic thanks to previous rituals and the only way you’re saving Ruby is to get the hell outta town, man. Take her far away and don’t tell no one where you end up.”

“You keep mentioning dark magic. What makes this guy so dangerous, aside from the obvious?” Ruby asked.

Darren’s left shoulder twitched upward even as his face paled. “It’s what they’re saying on the street - that no witch is safe, that he can get through any barrier, any protection spell.”

“But how?” Ruby pressed. “What’s this ritual involve, besides hearts?”

“Witch hearts,” Darren muttered.
 

He rubbed the back of his neck, repeating the phrase a few times under his breath. Ruby gave a sideways look to Cooper, who shrugged as if to say this was normal routine. So she and Cooper waited for him to rejoin the conversation; Ruby drank her tea while Cooper’s gaze flicked to the front door every so often. After a couple minutes of tapping his fingertips on the table and mumbling into his lap, Darren snapped out of it.
 

“Witch hearts are only used in the darkest of spells,” he said, leaning over so far that half his body seemed to be on the table. He risked a look behind him before continuing. “It’s usually for a form of power - by using a particular witch’s heart, he takes their power from the source and folds it into his own.”

Ruby and Cooper nodded; they had figured that much from what little information they could gather. They both stayed quiet, however, so that Darren wouldn’t get spooked or stop talking.

“He’s only taken women, which isn’t necessary for the ritual. So if you ask me, that says he prefers women.” Darren shrugged and Ruby couldn’t stop the cynical bark of laughter that left her mouth. Darren gave her an apologetic look and she shook her head, motioned for him to go on.

“The tool you mentioned…I asked around a little after you called me, Coop.” Darren nodded at Cooper, who remained still and silent. “You got a photo?”

Ruby pulled her phone out and showed him the photo of Michael’s sketch. “We’re told it’s a silver piece, something he’s using for a ritual maybe.”
 

Darren took a long look at it, studied the swirl and shape of it. He combed his fingers through his beard in thought. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”

He didn’t refer to either of them and they waited as he stared at the photo. They could only look at him in confusion, but he seemed to talk more to himself than them. “Only one ritual I can find calls for witch hearts, uses that silver tool. It’s a power trip thing.”

“That the technical term?” Ruby asked.

“Power,” Darren repeated. He blinked as though realizing they were still there and he rubbed his eyes. “The symbol is sort of uh, think of it as an enhancer. With that much power, he could do almost anything. Maybe even control a few folks and that’s near impossible. Maybe he could even time travel the right way.”

“What?” Ruby’s jaw almost dropped.
 

“Sounds like our old crew to me,” Cooper muttered.

Darren glanced over his shoulder and shot him a look. “The sacrifice for the spell is a bit much for them. They don’t have the patience for a spell this complex.”

His eyes darted to Ruby and back to Cooper. He combed through his beard again. “I’m just sayin’, consider our guys gangsters. They wanna get paid and to the next job so they work fast, right? But this guy, he’s a serial killer. They love this stuff. He stalks a girl, thinks it’s love, and kills in a specific, violent way.”

“Where’d you learn that, jail?” Cooper asked.

“Nope. TV show called Criminal Minds.”
 

Cooper rolled his eyes while Ruby suppressed a smile and said, “Let’s say this is all true. Exactly how many hearts does he need before the ritual is complete?”
 

Darren held up his hand palm-up to show her five pale fingers. “Five powerful witch hearts combined with the rest of the ritual gives him full control over whatever he wants. That can include a few people at one time, too.”

“How long does power like that last?” Cooper jumped in.

Darren twitched his shrug again. “Powerful enough witch, could be several months to years. It won’t last forever, though, not without more magic. He’ll have to do another round of Operation every few years to keep it up.”

“That symbol, do you know what it means?” Ruby asked.

Darren leaned forward. “It’s used in dark magic, so most witches don’t know it.”

“You do, though.”

He nodded his head a fraction of an inch, his brown eyes wide with fear. “The symbol, that’s a power source; it triples a witch’s powers. He harnesses magic from the sacrifice and the silver absorbs it until ready for transfer. Like a tupperware container for magic.”
 

The three of them sat in silence for a moment. Darren picked at his cuticles, his eyes darting around the room every few seconds. Ruby and Cooper exchanged glances before she thought of one more question.
 

“He signs his notes with the letter X,” Ruby informed him. “Any idea what that means?”

Darren shrugged. “Could be his name. Could be like X marks the spot. Got no clue.”

Ruby sighed, a movement that made her sink into the booth in defeat. Darren noticed and tried to backpedal.
 

“Maybe it’s his name. I could…I might could ask around.”

She shot him a grateful smile. “That would be great. Thank you.”

The corners of Darren’s lips flickered upward before he turned serious as he prepared to leave. “Cooper, I’ll call you from a prepaid when I get a chance - a day or two, probably. Take care of Ruby, okay?”

“You got it, Darren.” Cooper spared a small smile for his concern.

Darren patted Ruby’s hand on the table and gave them both a grim smile. “Be in touch soon.”

He slipped out of the booth and went straight for the front door. Without another look back at them, he disappeared out of the coffee shop. Ruby and Cooper sat in silence for a moment, mulling over Darren’s words.

“Three girls, three hearts,” Ruby said. “He only needs two more before he’s unstoppable. How do we stop him before that?”

“Sounds like he wants you for the grand finale, sweetheart,” Cooper reminded her. Ruby grimaced and he shrugged. “Keep you alive and maybe that’ll be enough.”

“Doubt it. He’s gone too far to stop now. If he can’t get to me, he’ll move on to someone else to achieve his goal.”

“Stalkers have a hard time breaking out of their obsessions from what I hear.”

“Could you stop? I get it, okay? He’s going to come and kill me in my sleep and my heart will help turn him into a supernatural Hitler.” A deep sigh finished up her short rant.
 

“Should we discuss the obvious here?”