“They maybe had nothing to do with the crime, but they lie to make themselves look better. They lie to get their opinion across. Maybe they’re a bigot or a racist, and they want whatever group they hate to get blamed. There’s a dozen reasons an innocent person would lie,” I explained, giving her a bored shrug.
“Well, I’ll never lie to you,” she said.
As soon as the words slipped from her mouth, I knew she was innocent. There was an earnestness and openness in her eyes that no one could fake, and my years of experience and skills as a detective told me all I needed to know about her. This was not a woman who would kill a man and kidnap a child.
A little voice at the back of my mind told me this might be a special case. A case that could help cleanse my soul. Twelve years old. So much life left to live. There was no way I’d allow her to die. Not if I could help it. I’d take this case even though I hadn’t said it yet. If I played this right, perhaps I could save a child’s life.
One life to atone for my past mistakes.
6
DECLAN
“I found your business address online, on one of the paranormal sites,” Veronica said, completing her hour-long narrative of the kidnapping, murder, and her flight from the Freedman Academy.
“I thought I’d wiped all those old sites,” I grumbled, shaking my head.
“Guess not,” she said as she took a sip of the tea I’d made for her.
Outside, the sky had turned from pitch black to a dark gray as dawn approached. Her whole story was crazy. A kidnappinganda murderinsidea magical academy? Whoever pulled that off had to have some fairly powerful magic to break through the place’s protection spells. No wonder they all thought she’d done it. Not only had she been found with Balthazar Freedman’s blood on her and the murder weapon in her hand, but she was already within the protection spells and able to move about freely.
I picked up my second cup of coffee, holding the warm cup between my hands as gears, long unused, began to turn in myhead. I could almost hear the cobwebs and dust falling off them as I put my past skills to use for the first time in over three years.
“How long were you out of Wendy’s room before you returned to find her missing?”
“I don’t know.” Veronica bit her lip, her brow creasing as she thought. “I had almost made it back to my room, which was on the other side of the mansion. It’s not really that far, but I was practicing a spell on the way back, so it took me longer. I’d say it was less than seven or eight minutes.”
“Not long at all,” I said. “If someone managed to break in, take her, and get away without a trace in that span of time, then this was not some sort of crime of passion or convenience. This had to have been planned. They were ready andwaitingto take Wendy as soon as she returned to her room.”
Veronica paled. “Why would someone want to take Wendy?”
Putting the cup down, I leaned back in my chair. “This is going to sound brutal, but it’s the truth. Kidnapping is terrible, but murder is worse. Let’s focus on your dean first. There’s no way his killing and his niece’s kidnapping aren’t connected. If we can find some suspects for his murder, then that gives us suspects for the kidnapping.
“Think really hard, Veronica. Can you remember anyone who might want to hurt Balthazar? A student upset about grades? Another teacher who—I don’t know how these places work—got passed over for a promotion or something? Maybe a friend he had a falling out with, or an enemy he talked about? Anything?”
She thought for a long time, that same cute crease in her brow. Finally, she shook her head. “I can’t think of anyone.”
“I don’t want to be…harsh,” I said slowly, “but you don’t appear to have a lot of magical power and skill. Is that correct?”
She rolled her eyes. “That’s putting it lightly. I’m middle of the pack. Maybe a tiny bit lower.”
“Does that mean you come from a lower station family?”
The entire magical world operated almost like a caste system. Bloodlines, family names, and alliances meant alotin that world. The gods sat on the top, holding dominion over the world. Many had specific areas of interest they managed, but for the most part, they watched. Most were not the omnipotent beings many humans knew from the Abrahamic religions. Were they powerful? Of course. They were mind-bogglingly strong, but did they know what lurked in the hearts and minds of men or saw things happening before they actually did? Not really.
After the gods came magic users like witches, sorcerers, and warlocks. Powerful magical creatures like wendigo, shifters, vampires, and werewolves came next. Then more amorphous creatures like ghosts, succubi, and incubi. Lastly, people like me. Humans who had, one way or another, discovered or been brought into the magical world and were able to move in both the human and supernatural societies.
There were dozens of different types of beings in each level, but no matter where they fell, there was a hierarchywithinthe hierarchy. Just like in the human world, powerful families tended to stay powerful throughout the generations.
“Yeah,” she said. “I came from a fairly small pack. The alpha wasn’t very well-respected or known. My parents weren’t rich or influential either. If I’m honest, we were poor. Dad came from a lowly pack in Arkansas, and Mom was from a tiny pack nearMichoacán in Mexico. We were nobodies. A couple of years ago, The Scourge wiped out most of my pack—including my parents,” she added sadly.
I sucked in a breath through my teeth. The Scourge. God damn, that was bad. Basically rabies but for shifters and were-creatures. If that was true—and I had no reason to believe itwasn’t—then she was right about her pack being poor. Rich and powerful packs had the connections and money to afford the expensive spell work and medicines to cure it and vaccinate against it.
I was honestly shocked she was a shifter. Her body was so slender and small. She was thin, and didn’t have much in the way of musculature or curves. She looked nothing like the shifter women I’d dealt with in the past. Those women tended to be either muscular, athletic, voluptuous, or some combination of all three simply because of the powerful hormones coursing through their bodies. Veronica was beautiful, but in a frail way that didn’t mesh with the typical shifter look.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” I said, “but there might be stuff you didn’t notice since you’re from a family with a lower station. Freedman wasn’t a nobody—evenI’veheard of him. Think hard, Veronica. Any off-hand comments he might have made? Even if it was about something that seemed innocuous at first.”
She shook her head. “I can’t think of anything. All I can remember is that he had a pretty heavy disdain for warlocks. Other than that, he was kind but firm with every student and teacher.”
