“Is she your girlfriend? Best friend? She’s part of the Cascade Coven, isn’t she?” Spencer pressed.
Caitlin’s expression didn’t waver, no hint of grief in her demeanor. He wondered, then, if she truly didn’t know.
“My client has been instructed not to speak to anyone while the SOA conducts this spurious search and seizure,” her attorney said acidly.
Spencer blinked and slipped his sight sideways and back again, checking to make sure Caitlin’s soul was her own. She carried no demon, just a familiar kind of hatred. Spencer tapped his finger on the frame. “Do you know she’s dead?”
Caitlin jerked, rising to her feet in a flurry of movement that knocked her seat over and had the agent in the corner taking a step forward. “Whatdid you just say?”
“Ms. Adler, I must insist—” her attorney began.
“So you didn’t know,” Spencer mused, spinning the frame on the table so he could see the photograph. “Interesting.”
“Your lies might have gotten you past my threshold—” Caitlin snapped, eyes wide and voice trembling ever so slightly.
“Search warrants aren’t issued because of lies but probable cause. I tracked a poltergeist to this location the other week. A special agent came here, to your coven’s home, the other day to interview you and left possessed by a demon. The SOA has reason to believe your coven is responsible for that. What’s more, the woman in this photograph was witnessed participating in a possession ritual against a werecreature. She was killed in the course of the SOA disrupting the possession.”
Caitlin curled her fingers into white-knuckled fists that shook. The arrogance had fled from her face, replaced by a hint of fear and uncertain grief. She blinked her eyes a couple of times, tears edging her lashes. “You’re lying.”
“Don’tsay anything,” her attorney ordered.
Spencer picked up the frame and tapped at the glass over the woman’s face. “You won’t get a body to mourn.”
“You’relying,” Caitlin spat out, expression crumpling.
Spencer glanced down at where Fatima sat beside his feet, patiently waiting, still not visible to anyone else. “Show me where the basement is.”
Caitlin twitched, eyes going wide. “What?”
Fatima trotted out of the dining room, and Spencer followed her, tucking the frame under his arm and bringing it with him.
He could hear Caitlin arguing in a hushed voice with her attorney behind him, the other SOA agent loudly reminding them they couldn’t interfere. That warning clearly didn’t stop Caitlin from coming after him. She caught up one hallway later, trying to shake off her attorney’s hands. Spencer glanced over his shoulder, waving at a few nearby SOA agents to stand down as Caitlin’s antics drew their attention.
“The warrant restricts your search for particular items,” the attorney said.
“It doesn’t restrict us from searching the premises,” Spencer said.
“You can’t use it to search for evidence not listed in the search warrant.”
“Broadly speaking, any evidence pertaining to the poltergeist is allowed to be searched for and collected.”
The attorney sneered at him. “My client is a sorceress of high repute, head priestess to a coven with a sterling reputation.”
Spencer raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything to that statement. Instead, he kept walking, letting Fatima lead the way to the open-plan kitchen. She circled the kitchen island once before stretching up on her hind paws to push at the edge of the marble countertop.It opens here.
Spencer reached for the countertop on the narrow side and pushed at it how Fatima wanted. It slid open along well-oiled rails, revealing a hidden set of stairs that led to a dark space below. Spencer reached for the inside latch on the side of the kitchen island that doubled as a door, swinging it open. A frisson of power crackled through the air. He looked over at Caitlin, who stood beside her attorney with a tight-lipped expression on her face.
“If you raise your threshold, we’ll have the right to arrest you,” Spencer reminded her.
Caitlin lifted her chin, eyes flashing. “I have done nothing to warrant such a threat.”
“Then continue doing that, and don’t mess with your threshold.” Spencer studied the stairs for a moment before catching the eye of the nearest agent. “Get Special Agent Ross for me. He’ll want to see what’s down here.”
The agent nodded and left the kitchen. Caitlin’s attorney had drawn her over to the adjacent dining room, far enough away from everyone, including Bradley, to have a hushed conversation no one could overhear. Bradley, meanwhile, was glaring so hard at Spencer that if looks really could kill, he’d end up the star of a crime scene.
Levi arrived a couple of minutes later, frowning at the space Spencer had uncovered. “That’s interesting.”
“Look familiar?” Spencer asked.
