I stared at the list on my board some more. On one side, I’d written a list of covens. On the other, I’d written Gemma’s name, followed by Nellie, who was followed by Willow and then Gail. Next was Noelle, Ainsley, and Evie, followed by the rest of the witches in the coven.
I crossed off Nellie, Noelle, and Ainsley while Kyla watched, her eyes narrowed.
“Gemma was going to stay in Durham. She decided to go on the trip at the last minute. But let’s say for a moment that she had stayed and died.”
I crossed her name off. Willow was now at the top of the list as coven leader. Gail, Noelle, Ainsley, Evie, Caroline, Marie, Zoe, and Freya were all shuffled into order.
“I don’t know about the remaining witches at the top, but from what I can tell, they’re mostly young or relatively new to the coven. Or, they’ve been members for a while but they don’t live in the house— they’re not interested in the internal politics.”
Kyla nodded. “It’s the same in the pack. You’ve got the wolves who keep to themselves but need to be members of the pack. Like me. And then you’ve got the wolves who are involved in the day-to-day running of the pack.
“Right.” I frowned. “I don’t know Willow well. And she never struck me as someone who wanted power.” I pulled up the notes on my phone. “Gemma took her in a few years ago when her relationship fell apart. Before that, she didn’t have much to do with the witches.”
“Maybe someone figures she’d step aside if Gemma was dead.”
“Yeah. You interviewed Willow, right? What do you have on her?”
“She sure didn’t like being interviewed by a werewolf, but that’s normal. She said the witches who’d died were her sisters and while we were wasting time interviewing the coven, whoever had killed them was likely flying to some island somewhere to drink mojitos on the beach.”
“I’d pick margaritas myself. Family kill each other all the time, just ask the cops.”
“Truth. Once she got that off her chest, she just cried, Danica. It was one of the saddest things I’ve seen.”
I sighed. “We need to do a deep dive into the top five witches who are left in the coven, including finances, prior brushes with the law— both human and witch, and anything else that jumps out at us. First, we start with Willow.”
17
Danica
Early the next morning, I checked on Evie, but she was still sleeping in the medical ward. Then I made my way down to Steve’s office on the third floor.
He sent me a look. As usual, his clothes were rumpled enough that he might’ve slept in them.
“You.”
“Me.”
“Ever since you hooked up with the boss, I’ve worked more hours than I have in years.”
I managed to suppress my smirk, then ruined it with my smart mouth. “Aw, are you missing out on your day drinking?”
He scowled at me and turned away, and I used that as an opportunity to wander into his office. “This space is tiny.”
He grunted. “Samael offered me a bigger one. I like it down here. A small office means you don’t have to deal with constantguests.”
I plonked myself in the chair across from his desk. “I’m about to make your day.”
“Is that right?”
“I need a deep dive on some witches. And I’m not going to ask you to do it since I know you’re busy. But I am going to ask you to load whatever programs or websites I’d need onto my laptop, along with any passwords you’d feel like sharing.”
He gaped at me. “Is that all?”
“I thought about hiring a guy. Or finding a contractor to deal with all this computer crap. But I’m not an idiot, and if you give me access, I can do it myself. I won’t need to hit you up for help every time I need a run.”
“And what does Samael say about this?”
I shrugged and he shot me a look. “I’m not risking my job without the boss’s approval. Even if you are his–”
