Spencer only held out his hand with its nitrile glove on and wriggled his fingers. “Your cell phone, Mr. Laurier, as ordered by the search warrant.”
For a moment, Spencer thought Bradley would go for his sidearm holstered on his hip. The way his fingers twitched toward the weapon was warning enough for Spencer to conjure up a mageglobe and let the small sphere of dark green magic hover between them right up against that iron gate in a glowing warning.
“Keep your hands off your weapon. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” Levi warned.
Spencer was kind of hoping Bradley would do something stupid, but in the face of the government standing at his boss’ door, he could do nothing but let the search happen. Bradley’s cell phone went into an evidence bag, and the gate was unlocked, letting the large team of SOA agents onto the property while a dozen others spread out to secure the perimeter. Bradley was forced to remain behind at the gate, watched over by an agent and restricted from running around and trying to hide any evidence.
Caitlin herself met them at the front door with another of her security personnel, looking furious in a pale pink dressing gown and soft white slippers. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Ma’am,” Levi said, passing over another copy of the search warrant. Spencer wondered how many he had tucked away in his back pocket. Hopefully enough to pass out like candy.
Caitlin practically ripped it out of his hand, still standing safe behind the home’s threshold. She didn’t immediately read it, glaring instead at Spencer standing to Levi’s left. “Youhave been lying.”
“Is that what we call working a case these days?” Spencer asked lightly. “The search warrant was issued under legal evidence. You need to allow access through your threshold. If you don’t, that will be considered an act of obstruction, and then we’d get to arrest you.”
“You would like that.”
Spencer shrugged. “Step aside and keep your threshold quiescent, Ms. Adler.”
“I’m calling my lawyer.”
“You have the right to do so, but it will not stop the search. Please step aside,” Levi said.
Caitlin stared at Levi for a long moment, as if she were assessing him. Spencer narrowed his eyes, wondering if she expected some other reaction out of Levi. Maybe it would have happened if he’d still been possessed, but Levi’s face remained expressionless. Caitlin’s lips twisted in displeasure, fingers crumpling the edge of the warrant as she stepped back. The hunter masquerading as a private security guard didn’t immediately move, glaring at them disdainfully.
“You may enter,” Caitlin said curtly.
At that acknowledgment, the hunter gave ground. Spencer still didn’t trust he wouldn’t shoot them all in the back, so he waved over another special agent and sicced them on the hunter. “Get his gun.”
The hunter, being a hunter, absolutely bristled at that order. “I have a right to be armed for my job.”
“You’ll get it back when we’re ready to leave.”
The special agent smiled in a way that promised violence if the hunter opted for that, and Spencer left them to it as he crossed a stinging threshold and entered the mini-mansion. A coldness settled over him, the threshold clearly not happy with their presence, but Caitlin’s order stood. He rolled his shoulders, glancing down at the brush of a small body against his leg. Fatima looked up at him and twitched her whiskers.
I will show you to the bones, she said.
Spencer tilted his head slightly in acknowledgment, not speaking to draw attention to her. She was visible only to him right now, and he preferred it that way. Spencer headed deeper into the home, going from room to room, checking for anything that might prove a risk to the other special agents on the property.
The floors in the home were hardwood, and more than one casting circle had been burned into them in different rooms. None held any active spellwork, but Spencer still stayed outside the lines and left mageglobes burning over the casting circles to act as markers for any agents passing through. Just because no active magic was happening didn’t mean they weren’t a threat.
Other than the security on the premises, Caitlin apparently lived alone, though the property appeared to act as a meeting space for her coven. The den had been repurposed for that, carrying the largest casting circle on the floor there. The credenza running along the wall beneath a window overlooking the backyard had tools for use in ceremonies. Framed photographs filled one wall in an abstract way, and Spencer stepped closer to study them.
Most were formal portraits, stemming from sepia-toned moments of the past to modern-day sleek presentation. He thought they must have been of the Adler family, born or married into the heart of the coven. One photograph drew his eye, the two women in sparkly evening gowns familiar. Caitlin looked a few years younger in the photographs than she currently was, as did the woman standing beside her—the same sorceress he’d seen at the gala and who Wade had killed in the Black Diamond Cemetery.
They stood close together in the photograph, heads tilted toward each other, and the smiles on their faces were full of love. Spencer took the frame off the wall, holding it carefully in his gloved hands. Caitlin and the sorceress only had eyes for each other in the handful of other photographs on the wall where they were captured together. Spencer wondered if Caitlin knew her lover was dead or not. Either way, the photographs linked one of her coven members to demonic possession, and that could ultimately implicate her as well.
Bones?Fatima asked.
“In a minute. I want to see what Caitlin has to say about this.”
Spencer pulled out his phone and took a picture of the framed photograph before carrying it with him through the home, bypassing numerous agents searching the place. He found Caitlin sitting at the dining room table, watched over by her security people, two agents, and a man in a crisp business suit who must have been her attorney. She’d changed into proper clothes, looking fashionable even without makeup on. When Spencer stepped into the dining room, her gaze snapped his way, the cold fury in her eyes not unexpected.
“Are you done?” she snapped.
“You’ll know when we’re finished,” Spencer replied as he came around the table. He didn’t take a seat, but he did set the framed photograph on the table, holding it up so she could see. “Who is this with you in the photograph?”
Caitlin arched an eyebrow and stared at him as if he were stupid, not saying a word. Her attorney didn’t even need to admonish her not to speak because she already knew that song and dance. In Spencer’s experience, rich people knew their rights better than poor people simply because they wanted to know their defenses in the face of the laws they were breaking.
