“I’m glad you did that,” Bracken said.“I get the feeling she’s been shunned by a lot of the family, especially after she and Roger divorced.”
I nudged his shoulder with my own.“You and I have been on the outs most of our lives as well.It doesn’t surprise me, unfortunately.You know what Coreys are like, always measuring our magical strengths against each other.”We paused at the steps to his RV.“Do you need any cookies, rolls, muffins?”
His lips turned up.“I enjoy you framing that as a need.”He shook his head.“Hester was kind enough to give me a few cookies earlier to have with my tea tonight.I’m good.You two should run along and have some dinner.”
“We’ll need to eat fast,” Declan said.“We still have to go to the morgue.”
Bracken shook his head as he opened his door.“They ask too much of you.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling her,” Declan growled.
“I’ll be fine,” I said, looking around.“It makes me nervous to leave you here, though.The Swans are dangerously unpredictable.”
“That they are,” he murmured.“I extended the wards to the property line and added a muffling charm so they can’t cross onto this land or hear what we say.”
“Nice!”Clapping, I added, “That makes me feel a little better about you staying here on your own.”
He chuckled.“Child, I’ve been on my own most of my life.”
“I know.”I took his hand in my gloved one.“But not anymore.”
He gave a quick shake of his head and cleared his throat.“No.Not anymore.Go on.You two need to eat before you do another favor for the authorities.”
Declan held out his hand and shook Bracken’s.“Thank you again for what you did earlier.”
Nodding, he gave us a little wave and went inside.
“I need to lock up, then we can go,” I told Declan.
We stopped at a diner for burgers and were pulling up in front of the morgue a couple of minutes after nine.Kaknu stood out in front with Osso and Hernández.
I threw open the passenger door.“Hey, gang’s all here.”Grabbing my backpack, I slid out and slammed the door.
Declan was beside me, taking my hand.“That head coroner isn’t here, is she?”
Declan was referring to Dr.Landscombe, who didn’t believe in psychics and had made life difficult for me by giving me the wrong body to read.She thought she was going to catch me in a lie, and I ended up having to live through a woman being strangled.It was miserable and I’d wanted to smack her really hard.
“It’s good we’re here late,” Hernández whispered.“The mayor was here with the captain earlier.He was super tense and pissed off.He wants this solved and forgotten before the next election.”
Answering Declan, Kaknu shook his head.“Landscombe was on the day shift.Dr.Ortiz is on tonight and he’s looking forward to this.It sounds as though he was quite disappointed he missed you the last time you were here.”
“That’s good,” I said.“At least no one’s going to slip me the wrong corpse.”
We went to the door and Osso hit a buzzer.A couple of minutes later, a dark-haired man with a short beard, glasses, and a white lab coat ducked out of a door and stared down the hall at us.He checked his phone, then made his way to the door.
Opening it, he waved us in.“Special Agent, Detective, Detective.”He looked past them until his eyes fell on me.“Oh, my.”He held up his phone.“I could only see some curly hair on the monitor.Ms.Corey, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.I’m Dr.Ortiz.David.”He waved us down the hall with him.“Agent Mutsun told me the remains he wanted you to read.I have the body in an empty room.Those are hard to come by right now, but I was told there was an incident last time, so I didn’t want a repeat.”
“Good,” Declan said.
Dr.Ortiz blinked like he hadn’t noticed Declan before.As Declan was six and a half feet of muscular beauty, he didn’t usually go unnoticed.“Oh.Sorry.”He held out his hand to shake.“I’m David Ortiz.”
“Declan Quinn.”
The doctor looked around Declan’s shoulder to find me again.“Ms.Corey, right in here.”
“Thank you.”I followed him to an exam room, past Osso, whose eyebrows were near his hairline, and Hernández, who looked to be fighting back laughter.Declan glared at the doctor, but he didn’t notice, which made it even funnier to Hernández.
There was a covered gurney in the middle of the room.I turned to the doctor and found him already standing attentively beside me.
