Raoul laughed, a sick, raspy sound. “You continue to underestimate me. I have not survived this long only to fall to you in this vermin-infested forest.” A gnarled, disfigured hand reached up and clasped the pendant hanging around his neck.
It took Thomas half a second longer than it should have to discern what his prey was up to.
“Ta-ta,” Raoul said as he squeezed the pendant in his fist. He stepped backward into the portal that had been tied to it emerged behind him.
“No!” Thomas yelled, lurching forward. It snapped shut even as Michael dived for it. Once again, Raoul had escaped. “Son of a bitch.” Thomas’s scream of frustration echoed through the trees around them.
The other men who were with them swarmed into the area, looking confused and uncertain of what to do next. Michael came to stand in front of Thomas. He raked his hands through his hair. “Find out who fashioned the portal for him. Find out when they did it. And most importantly, find out where the hell he went.”
“It’ll take some time, but I’ll get a tracker on it right away and put out inquiries with some reliable people.” Trackers were highly specialized magic users who trained to follow portals to their destinations. The exceptional ones could also trace the spell back to the one who had cast it. Michael shifted his weight on his feet. “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m going to give it a couple of hours to see what you find out and then I’m going to take a portal back to Juliana.”
“Using the Council’s mages, I guess?”
Thomas frowned. What an inane question. “Of course, why wouldn’t I?”
His second wore a frown to mirror his own. “Juliana didn’t tell you, did she?”
A muscle twitched near Thomas’s eye at the reminder of his mate’s closeness with his friend. “Until recently she seems to have been under the impression I wasn’t speaking to her, so there hasn’t been much exchanging of information.”
“
Were
you talking to her?” A twinkle lit Michael’s eye.
Thomas didn’t bother to answer the question. For one thing, it was none of Michael’s business. For another, he should know better than to think Thomas would shut Juliana out. He’d spent too long without her to do anything so petty. “What is it she was to have told me?”
Michael sobered quickly. “We think someone on the Council fed Raoul information. It’s entirely possible it was one of the Council’s mages who fashioned the pendant for him.”
The need to deny it could be true was Thomas’s initial instinct, but after what Juliana mentioned about Carmela earlier, he couldn’t without more information. “Why do you think that?”
“He knew you were moving home. Even I didn’t know that. The only people you told were the Council.”
All that was true but it wasn’t enough to convince him of a betrayal. He shook his head.
“There’s something else,” Michael said and then didn’t say anything for a long time.
“What is it?” Thomas finally prompted.
“Carmela is his sire.”
The words rocked Thomas back on his heels. “You are certain?”
“You paid dearly for the information. I have no reason to believe it untrue.” Vampire sires and their offspring were not generally known to others. If no one possessed the information, it couldn’t be used against them.
“Why are we just now finding out?”
“It took me this long to find someone who knew. She covered her steps well after he disappeared.”
Carmela. She was one of his oldest friends, but all the latest evidence seemed to indicate she was a traitor. The question was, to what extent. “Did she know?” Thomas asked quietly, his voice rough.
Michael’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“Did she know what he did to Juliana?” Thomas clarified, biting off every word.
His friend’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. Surely not. Even she wouldn’t tolerate abuse of that magnitude. Not to one you claimed.”
A muscle worked in Thomas’s jaw. “Start with the mages Carmela has the easiest access to. I believe she had one who resided with her coven. Do whatever it takes to get the information we need.”
Michael stilled. “Are you certain this is the path you wish to take? There is no turning from this. The Council could have you up on charges for even thinking it, never mind the follow-through.”
“Juliana and I are United. You know what was done to her. If they helped DeSoto, they are as guilty as he. I’ll take my chances with the Council.”
His second nodded once. “Very well. I will do my best to make sure the interrogations are discrete. We’ll start with the most likely candidates first.”
“Perhaps the tracker will help you focus your attentions.” He ran a hand down his face. “Pay him whatever he asks to get the job done. I need to know where Raoul went. The cursed man can’t elude me forever. I’ll call my plane to come pick us up. Get me the answers I need before then.”
Chapter Seven
Juliana paced the length of the line of whiteboards now covered in pictures, papers and index cards. Handwritten notes in various colors of marker were interspersed among them. Her heart ached as she memorized innocent faces and the names that went with them. There were so many. Somewhere in the midst of all this, there had to be something to lead them to the killer. One of these instances he had to have made a mistake. She just had to find it.
At the end of the line was a board with no children on it. It was where they posted all the information on the Thief as they acquired it. Right now it bore a depressingly few number of facts and suppositions. She’d never dealt with a perp before that was so good at making sure his crime got noticed while leaving no sign of himself at all. She huffed out a breath and paced back down the row.
She stopped in front of the section for Cassie Richards. The picture of her gap-toothed smile, blue eyes and pigtails now swam in a sea of other images from the crime scene and the surrounding area. Juliana took a moment to look over the photos, as she hadn’t seen them before. There were several of the school and playground as well as a series taken of the surrounding neighborhood. Typical stuff and nothing that stood out.
After a moment, she moved to the next board that held one of the new children. New to her, but kidnapped months before the twins. Sam Kelson with his red hair, freckles and pointed teeth smiled at her. According to Taft, the boy’s body had been found a mere two days after he was taken. Jeremiah was working on getting a copy of the M.E.’s report and copies of the crime-scene photographs.
She’d placed him on the board with the twins. She looked at all three pictures. At the three little faces as they were before the Thief got to them. She wondered how many more faces would be marred by death before this was over. How many more families would be able to hope only for justice?
Something niggled at Juliana’s brain and she stepped back to look at Cassie Richards again. One of those pictures was speaking to her, shouting for attention but she couldn’t place which one. She looked at them each in turn. The school, the swing, the playground as a whole. The cemetery across the street. The houses across another. Nothing out of place, everything just as it should be. She went back to the cemetery picture. “Do we have these on disk?”
“Thumb drive, why?” Taft asked.
“Just give it to me.” She powered up her computer and plugged in the drive when he handed it to her. Clicking through to the right picture, she zoomed in on the section that caught her attention and put it up on the screen with the projector.
“What are we looking at?” Jeremiah asked.
She stepped up to the screen and pointed at the mausoleum she’d focused on. “See those numbers? That’s an address. And that is a porch light.” She smiled. “I guarantee you that particular resident got overlooked in the neighborhood sweep. Maybe our perp overlooked them when he cast the distraction spell as well.”
“Anything living there was probably underground at the time and didn’t see anything,” Taft argued.
“Probably isn’t definitely,” Juliana came back. “Besides, most of the cemetery dwellers I’ve dealt with usually have some kind of surveillance set up so they can see what’s going on in the outside world. Maybe the cameras caught something we can use.”
“It’s worth checking out.” Jeremiah scrolled through a list on his phone. “You go. I’m going to keep working on getting the information we still need from the other jurisdictions.”
“We also need to run a profile through the database.”
“We ran a database check.” Taft sounded irritated. “We interrogated the matches and came up empty.”
“What did you search for?” she asked.
“Phipps had us concentrate on offenders with a history of molestation or sexual assault of children.”
She nodded. “That was a good place to start. But there was no evidence of sexual abuse on either of the twins and something tells me there won’t be on Kelson either.”
“What am I looking for?” Jeremiah grabbed a piece of paper and a pen.
“Magic users with a history of violent crimes, particularly those with a history of crimes against children. Even if they were never convicted. If anyone could have gotten out of serving any time, it’s the Thief. Don’t overlook the breeds that can bend magic like the fae. It would actually make more sense for it to be one of them using the wild magic. Witches and mages have their own magic. They wouldn’t need to harness it.”
Jeremiah scratched out what she told him and gave her a nod. “I’ll get right on it and let you know what we come up with. It’ll take a while, that’s a big suspect pool.”
She turned to Taft. “All right, Detective. You and I are on graveyard duty. Let’s go.”
He looked surprised, though she didn’t know why he should. He was stuck with her for the duration of the investigation and he might as well get used to it. He grabbed his jacket and slipped it on.
“Don’t wait up.” She gave Jeremiah a wave of her fingers and headed out the door.
* * *
A quick internet search on Taft’s fancy phone on the way over told them little of interest. Rolling Hills cemetery had housed part of the city’s dead for roughly a hundred years. It was also remarkably flat for something christened with that name.
As they grew closer to the neighborhood, the number of people on the streets thinned. Once they were within two blocks, there was no one outside at all. Undoubtedly, they were all huddled behind locked doors praying to whatever god they believed in to save them and their children. Or thanking them that it hadn’t been their child who vanished. Crime-scene tape still cordoned off a large part of the playground at the school, though it had come loose in several places and now danced in the wind.
They pulled through the gates of the cemetery and eased around the winding road to the mausoleums. Using the photo as a guide, they found the correct one easily. It helped that it was the only one with a porch light. Juliana stood in front of it and looked across the street to see that she had an unimpeded view of the swing where the little girl had been taken. Maybe just this once the Fates would be kind to her and they’d catch a break. Any break at all.
The steps to the mausoleum crumbled beneath her boots, but didn’t give way. In fact, the entire structure gave the air it would collapse with one wrong touch, but she had the feeling that wasn’t true at all. The structure had most likely been reinforced but they’d neglected to change the outward appearance. Probably so the mausoleum wouldn’t be as noticeable. In its current state, it blended in with its surroundings and was easily overlooked. She glanced around the faded stone and found a doorbell hidden in one of the recesses near the door. She didn’t see any video cameras, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
A hollow, deep gong rang beneath them and Taft glanced at her in amusement. “Well, at least we don’t have to wonder if the bell works.”
“Who is it?” A voice echoed around them, obviously filtered over some kind of speaker system or by a spell of some sort.
“I’m a Walker with the Agency.” Juliana tapped the edge of the badge lying against her chest. She hiked a thumb over her shoulder. “And he’s a detective with the fifth precinct.”
There was a pause. “Just a moment.”
After much longer than a moment, there was a scraping sound and a rush of cool air as the heavy stone door slid open. A hunched form with mottled grayish-green skin and yellow eyes looked up at her. A ghoul. An old one if the ragged condition of his skin was any indication. It glanced briefly at Taft, but quickly slid its eyes back to her. “What may I do for you, Walker?”
“I’m Walker Norris. This is Detective Taft. And you are?”
It looked surprised and then said, “Name’s Oliver, mistress.”
“I was wondering if you know anything about the disappearance at the school. If you, or maybe your cameras, saw anything?”
His eyes darted to Taft again and back to her before answering. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. I was below and my cameras only record the area immediately around my home.”
She tried to keep the sinking disappointment she felt off her face. “Could we maybe review your data anyway, see if you happened to catch something you weren’t intending to? Or that you weren’t aware of?”
He shook his head. “I checked as soon as I heard what happened. The disks are all completely blank. It’s as if something erased them, which is impossible. I’ve never had that problem before and there’s no indication what caused it this time. I’m sorry I can’t help you.”
She studied him for a moment. He seemed sincere, but that didn’t mean anything. He also fidgeted a lot for someone with nothing to hide. She couldn’t make him let her review his data right now, but it was a whole different scenario if she could get a judge to sign off on a warrant. She’d talk it over with Jeremiah. He would come up with something to give them enough leverage with a judge. “Well, thank you, Oliver.” She handed him a card. “Let us know if you think of anything, else, won’t you?”
Again, he darted his eyes to the side and back to her. He was nervous for sure, but Taft evidently unsettled him more than she did. Or perhaps, he distrusted all males. “Of course. And thank you.”
“Thank you? For what?”
“For thinking I’m worth speaking to,” he said.
Juliana looked at him, her brow furrowed. What a sad existence to be thankful the police questioned you just because it meant someone noticed you. She headed for the car.
She was nearly there when he called out to her. “Walker Norris.”
She turned back to look at him standing in the open door of his mausoleum.
“Be careful, Walker. There is much danger where you tread.”
That had a ring of prophesy about it, but she didn’t ask. Didn’t want to know. Cursed prophesies. Instead, she simply nodded her thanks and slipped into the car. Her phone buzzed as Taft pulled away from the curb.
“Norris.”
“It’s me,” Sara said on the other end. Juliana smiled. Sara was her best friend. Their relationship had only ever been tainted by the fact that Sara was also Thomas’s sister. Even the best relationships had flaws. “I have been instructed to feed you.”
Juliana bit back a growl. So Thomas couldn’t call and check on her, but he’d call his little sister and order her to make sure his mate ate. Typical. Of course, he probably hadn’t intended for Sara to tell Juliana that he’d been behind the dinner invitation. “Let me guess, you were supposed to call and tell me Rachel wanted to see me.”
“Something like that.” There was a smile in Sara’s voice.
“As much as I would love to come over and let you feed me, I’m not alone. I’m working a case.”
“Is it something you can get away from?”
“Yeah. For the moment.”
“Bring them with then.” And she promptly hung up.
Juliana blinked a couple of times and put the phone away. She twisted in her seat to look at Taft. “Hungry?”