Missing, Suspected Dead: Elisabeth Hicks, Witch Detective Read online

  He nodded, and his next words weren’t a lie. “It’s amazing how generous people can be to our kind. The world’s changed.”

  “Does Amy help out with the school?” Ted asked, not caring about the political commentary.

  “When she can. Today she’s at the county, working for one of her newbies.”

  “What’s she doing?” I’d been to the county government office back home, it didn’t seem like the kind of place a werewolf would visit.

  “Trying to convince someone’s boss that he shouldn’t fire them for being a wolf.”

  “That’s illegal,” I reminded him.

  “Sure is.” Vincent walked around the room straightening desks. “But it’s not illegal to fire people for missing work. For a new wolf the first few full moons are pretty rough. You don’t just get up and make it to the office at eight the next day.”

  I nodded, seeing the loophole. “Do you think Amy will get it worked out?”

  “Usually she does,” he said with a smile. “She can be persuasive, aggressive even when she’s not around us.”

  “Really?” The way she’d stopped herself from speaking and the defeated hunch of her shoulders made it hard to believe.

  “Don’t be so quick to judge. We’ve all got different sides to us.”

  “Like you learning how to create a website?” Ted asked him. “You didn’t even use electricity for ten years.”

  “Eleven,” Vincent laughed. “But I got over that. Let me show you how much.”

  They walked out of the room, headed toward the computer but I hung back, checking around the classroom. Old-fashioned desks and cheerful bulletin boards proclaiming math superstars made up the kind of school room you’d expect in any elementary. I skimmed a few gold-star winning essays about current events and decided that at least educationally, the kids weren’t neglected. Vincent and Ted didn’t notice, they were deep in the middle of recollections and philosophical discussions. Instead of interrupting or joining in, I slipped out the side door. It was time to see the place on my own a little.

  My magic guided me down the hallway, a pleasant buzz pulling me forward only to catch two teenagers necking. Hastily excusing myself, I backed out of the room and nearly ran into Sue, who was walking with a pair of men. Underneath my automatic apologies for interrupting, I cataloged little details about them. One was a cop and the other thought he was important.

  “Elisabeth!” Sue smiled at me. “I was just saying how you were looking into the problem for us.”

  My shoulders went back as I pasted on a confident, friendly smile. “That’s why I’m here. Who’s this?”

  Sue might not have gotten the same training as the school kids but she knew how to introduce someone smoothly enough. “Detective Kotch, who’s been handling the missing persons, and Mr. Hemming, from Social Services.”

  Both men shook hands with me. Kotch felt bored, like this was a waste of his time, and Hemming disappointed. I probed a bit deeper with Hemming’s handshake, holding on to him for the extra second it took to see foster care placement paperwork in his head.

  “Has something new come up to bring you gentlemen in for a visit?”

  “Just a spot check. With everything that’s going on and the history here, we want to be extra sure everyone is doing what’s best for the children.” He oozed self-righteousness with a smug sneer.

  My eyebrows went up slightly to show concern I didn’t feel. “But no children have been involved. Isn’t that right, Sue?”

  “That’s right,” she agreed.

  “And, no parents either, right?”

  “Right again.”

  “So, how could the kids be in danger?” I asked, doing my best to play dumb.

  He rocked back on his heels, and folded his arms across his chest. “If the allegations Ms. Rice is making about someone kidnapping the adults are true, then the children could be the next target. Of course, if you discover that isn’t the case, then the children would be fine.”

  “I see.” My voice went cold. I saw all right. If Sue pushed it with the police, they’d take the kids away. If she let it drop, they’d go away. It was wrong, but there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it. “I’ll make sure Sue lets you know what I find as soon as things wrap up.”

  “Tell me, have you been an investigator long?”

  “Long enough,” I laughed. “I’m licensed down in LA though. Sue wanted someone from outside the area, someone completely impartial.”

  Sue ran with my idea. “I’m doing everything in my power to make sure the community is safe, gentlemen.” She turned toward me. “Would you wait for me in my office?”

  I was about to ask where it was when a crystal clear image of the office door behind the reception desk came to mind. There were no words, but it was Sue’s office, and she wanted me there. “Sure thing.”

  Following the images she’d put in my head, I found the office in a few minutes. What she’d done left me a little shaken. I shared memories with Jo, by choice and not, but it felt natural, like something I just happened to remember. This felt odd, like someone slipped inside my head for a minute. I considered calling Calvin, I’d invaded his head once, maybe he could tell me how subtle or not-subtle my magic felt. He’d been sore about the experience for a while. If this was how he felt I knew why. Then again, I’d given Ted images, put happiness and comfort into his dreams. He’d never acted invaded, or asked me to stop. Was the difference that Ted loved me, but Sue was a stranger? Maybe some part of me saw her as a threat, and that tainted how her abilities felt

  I studied the room to distract myself. Sue’s private office had been the reception office. She’d made the space over, taking the long skinny room and turning it into a living room of sorts. A desk took up most of one end, but the rest of it was a standard TV room with a couch, a chair, and a boxy vintage TV set. Three doors lined the far wall, a quick glance showed inner offices, probably manager space, turned into a bedroom and a bathroom. While everyone else in the Pack slept upstairs for some reason she was here, just a few feet from the door.

  “I moved after the third disappearance,” she entered the room answering my thoughts. “The front door isn’t the only door, but it would be the easiest to get someone out of. This way I can hear anything that happens.”

  “Has it helped?”

  She sat down in the living room chair, her body stiff. “No. Nothing’s helped or I wouldn’t have come to you.”

  “You didn’t really come to me, you came to Ted.”

  “And that worked out so well.” Sarcasm laced the words. “Thanks for going along with things out there.”

  Being in this place took her hostility down a notch. We’d been together for at least three minutes and she hadn’t made a single threat. I didn’t believe the “we’re all friends here” vibe but going along with it would make for a better weekend. “The social services guy wants to take the kids.”

  “I know.” She sounded resigned. “Sometimes I wonder if he should. It sure doesn’t seem like Ted liked his time with us.”

  “From what I’ve seen, he got a much different experience.”

  “It was pretty harsh,” she admitted. “But it made him strong. Made all of us strong.”

  I didn’t know how to reply to someone who thought a nine-year-old needed to be strong. Thankfully her mind was on other things.

  “Doesn’t matter though, they’re still picking us off, one by one.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “There’s been seven now. Six men, one woman. The first ones had just gotten out of jail. They were having trouble getting used to the way things are now. I figured they’d left.”

  “What convinced you otherwise?”

  “Di. She wanted to be here. I used to visit her in jail and this was her dream. We were close so I didn’t think twice about checking her room. All of her stuff was there. Like she went to the grocery store and didn’t come home. Then I went into the other rooms, same story.”

 
“But people don’t have much when they get out of jail.”

  “All the more reason to take their stuff with them. Have you ever had nothing?” She stared, her eyes going through me. “I mean really nothing, not a slip of paper, just an empty wallet and the clothes on your back?”

  I shook my head. Sure I’d been in spots where I didn’t have anything on me but there’d always been something for me back at my parents’ place or at some Army base somewhere.

  “When you’ve got next to nothing, you pay attention to what you do have. If it’ll all fit in a backpack or a grocery sack, you take it along with you. But they didn’t.”

  She got quiet for a minute, but I wanted more, so I tried, “After that?”

  She took a deep breath. “I got careful. Moved down here, told all the adults to go out in pairs.”

  “They listened to you?”

  “Nobody ignores me when I give an order.” Her voice made it sound like law and probably, in this community, it was. “Didn’t help. Shit, I wasn’t even here when they got Harley. I left him on watch, too.”

  “Harley is the last one to disappear, the one from Wednesday night?”

  She nodded.

  The scene with Ted’s dad gave her an alibi I’d never forget. “You were still in Osceola.”

  “Vincent needed to get back, to teach school. I wanted to give it another day. I called Dave to see what he thought, and decided we should get together as a family. I didn’t think Edward would want it but I thought it was what he needed to hear. For a minute there it was going okay.”

  “I guess.” The first five, maybe ten minutes, could have seemed fine but really it was all a disaster. I pulled the topic away from that emotional minefield. “How’d you get home?”

  “Bus then the train.”

  “Fun trip.” It would have been long and cramped.

  “I can handle it. I can handle a lot.” She stared off, lost her in thoughts again. “Everything except having to watch someone tear apart my family.”

  13

  Sue sent me away with a promise to see me at dinner. Ted might still have been chatting with Vincent but I expected to find him in our room. He’d done a fair bit of the driving. If I was him I’d be hoping for some down time. Actually, even if I didn’t find him, that’s what I wanted: a nice quiet space to let my guard down for an hour. I stepped on to the landing between the floors and reached out with my magic to feel the space ahead of me. The light was dim, a few bulbs were missing, but someone was up there, someone male. I’m not very good at telling one type of supernatural spook from the next, but it wasn’t someone human, and it sure as hell wasn’t LaRue. I couldn’t think of another man I’d expect to haunt a hotel hallway for me.

  I headed up anyway. I was armed, and I knew they were there, which gave me the advantage. Besides, it might have been Vincent or someone else equally benign. At the top of the stairs that possibility ended when whoever it was failed to come out of the darkness by the elevator. I put my hand over my gun, unhooking the strap, ready to act. I hoped it was the kidnappers, doing something stupid that would let me catch them and get Ted the hell out of here. Another few steps with no movement from behind me, and I imagined someone big, waiting to pounce. There’s no good way to walk and brace yourself for impact so I strolled as if I didn’t have a clue. Another door down and a noise gave me the excuse to talk.

  “Someone there?” I spread my magic out, searching. There was a brush of familiar emotions ahead of me, probably Ted. Behind me, the male feeling got darker, like someone who knew they were doing wrong. “Anyone?”

  “Did I scare you?” The body stayed in the shadows, the voice low.

  Could have been anyone. “Jason?”

  He walked forward, barely coming into the light. “How could you see me back there?”

  “I couldn’t, just a guess.”

  He came ever closer, near enough that I could pick out the black hairs from the brown in his beard. Beard, chest hair coming out of his shirt, hair on his head, Jason had rejected the concept of manscaping. His face stopped an inch from mine. I forced myself not to flinch. He breathed deeply through his nose.

  “You smell like sex,” he declared.

  “Excuse me?” I took a step back—to hell with games—and put my whole hand on the Glock, ready to draw.

  “You know what I mean.” His voice tried to seduce. Pity for him, LaRue taught me to resist that a long time ago.

  “Step away from her, Jason,” Edward’s voice called from outside our door. Edward, not Ted, the voice he used before he took people apart. That voice meant someone would bleed soon.

  Jason laughed. “You gonna make me, little brother? I’m bigger than you are, stronger, too.”

  “But I’m smarter.” Edward’s hand moved fast. In almost the same instant the popping sound of a shot and the smell of cordite registered. Jason was on the floor grabbing his shoulder. A second later, my boyfriend was standing in front me holding his gun.

  “Have fun digging that silver out of your shoulder. Next time I’ll go for your heart.”

  “You son of a bitch.” Jason spat at him, blood seeping out from under his palm as he put pressure on the wound. “It’s closing. I’ll have to cut it out.”

  “Leave now or you’ll have one to take out of your leg, too.”

  “Jesus, when did you turn into a prick? It’s not like I hurt her. We were just having fun.”

  Edward stepped forward, shot Jason’s knee dead center, and then pushed the smoking muzzle of the gun into the hole. Jason screamed, but no one came to his rescue.

  “It wasn’t fun for her and you’re never going to do it again, understand?”

  Jason kept howling, so Edward took the gun out of his leg and slammed him on the side of his face with it. With the gun out of the way, the hole in his knee slowly closed over itself. In seconds the only hint of the wound was a bright red welt through the hole in his jeans.

  “Wow. You really are Sue’s son, aren’t you?” Amber stood at the top of the stairs, another teenage girl behind her. Both of them had eyes the size of dinner plates at the action. Edward didn’t even reply.

  “Go away, Amber. Now!” Jason screamed at her and the girls scurried upstairs. He got to his feet shaking, gingerly putting weight on his knee. When he did, he winced. Looked like a silver splinter the size of a bullet didn’t feel too good. “If you didn’t have that gun I’d kick your ass.”

  “Then it’s a good thing I have it.” Edward pushed backward, moving me down the hall to the room. “Should I take the other knee? Or have you learned to stay away from what’s mine?”

  “Fuck you,” Jason told him, but he said it while he limped upstairs. As soon as he was out of sight, Edward pushed me into our room. Inside the door, he moved the heavy wooden dresser in front of it. When the fire escape behind us was the only way in or out of the room, Edward turned to me.

  “Into the shower,” he commanded.

  “Kinky.”

  “I’m worried about blood splatter.”

  “I wasn’t that close to him.”

  “Let’s be sure.” His look told me not to argue. He kept the water on scalding, and didn’t just fold the clothes but put them in a plastic bag I didn’t know he’d packed. I wanted to ask him what else he’d brought along just in case, but the dead space I felt when I touched him bothered me too much. After the shower, he pulled me into the bedroom, my skin still wet. His hand tugged at my towel.

  I raised my eyebrows at him. “What do you have in mind, lover?”

  “I want to make sure you don’t have any breaks in your skin. Cuts, scraps, places his blood could get in.”

  I submitted to his examination, stretching out on the sheets. They were soft and new, gentler on my skin than the feeling of Edward’s head. “You really are a different person around them.”

  He grunted in reply, and pulled me to turn over on my stomach.

  I stretched my arm out above my head, then brought it back down. The adrenal
ine had my fake muscles almost cramping. “I couldn’t tell what you were thinking out there.”

  “I was wondering if I needed to kill him.”

  I’d been wondering close to the same thing. “And you decided you didn’t need to?”

  “I decided I didn’t want to do it with a bullet. Not if he touched you.”

  I rolled back over to look him in the eye, finally getting it. He was scared of losing me, frightened of me being turned the way his mother was. “I’m fine.”

  Instead of saying something he grabbed me and kissed me, his mouth hard on mine. For the first seconds, his head was the blank blackness of a torturer, then his emotions came back: fear, worry, anxiety, love, and need. I kissed him back, letting him feel my own mix of fear, love, and desire. Our kisses made me want more, but when I let my hand drift below his waist he stopped me.

  “I need to call William,” he said. He got up and grabbed a pair of clean jeans. His cell phone was in his hand less than a second later.

  “What?”

  “I want him to watch us sleep tonight.”

  I exhaled, letting all of my lustful thoughts go with the air in my lungs. “You think Jason will pull something?”

  “No, but I’m not going to bet your life on it.”

  I dressed while he called, then headed into the bathroom to give him a bit of privacy. He probably didn’t need it but my hormones did. Parts of me were very disappointed in our boyfriend. When I came out a few seconds later he was closing the phone.

  “William will be here an hour after sunset.”

  “Great,” I said, meaning it. We’d both sleep better knowing we were safe. “He can stay until sunrise?”

  “An hour before or so. I’ll be up by then.”

  I nodded, thinking about what had gone down in the hallway.

  “You and William,” I started, but then stopped because I didn’t know how to say it.

  “Just ask me, Elisabeth, whatever it is, just ask.”

  “Did you two ever torture a werewolf?” Not the nicest way to put it but it got the point across.