She glanced back at the door again, looking like she was preparing for the confrontation she thought was coming.Instead, Declan came back with a tall glass of juice for me and a plate of mixed muffins.
“They’re still frozen,” he told me.
I placed my hand over them, toasted them up, and grabbed my version of a rocky road muffin.It was chocolate, with a marshmallow center and chopped candied pecans on top.Declan offered some to the others.Hernández and Osso took one, but Kaknu declined.
Declan sat beside me with a muffin in his hand, the plate of two more on my other side, and looked at Hernández.“We’re both really happy about this.Is it sooner than either of us expected?Yes, but we’re grateful for the gift.I love Arwyn.I’d never force her to do something she didn’t want.I’m not baby trapping her.”
“I didn’t mean—” she began.
“I understand,” he broke in.“You care about her too and want to make sure she’s safe.You’re a good friend.”
Hernández relaxed and took a bite of her muffin.
When I finished eating, I told them about the two Swan visions.
“They still think Logan is the Alpha?”Declan asked.
I nodded.“I guess no one has updated them.”
While Hernández and Osso scratched their notes, Kaknu tilted his head and asked, “Would the wicche community normally be told of a change in pack leadership?”
Declan shook his head.“Some Coreys know because of my relationship with Arwyn.Otherwise, we keep to ourselves.”He tipped his head toward Osso.“Shifters often have the same types of careers, so friendships form and stories get passed.Wicches are separate.Her comment, though, is indicative of the arrogance of wicches—present company excepted.She clearly doesn’t know any pack members, but she believes she has an in with the Alpha and can get information from him.That is wild.”
“Logan liked to strut around town,” I told him.“He wasn’t a good pack Alpha, but he loved his celebrity, making sure everyone noticed and appreciated him.”
“Who’s Margaret?”Hernández asked.
“My grandmother’s sister,” I replied.“I need to tell Mom about that bit.I doubt she knows Margaret is in contact with Catherine Swan and passing on Corey information.”
“You’re positive,” Osso began, “about this room under the screened porch?”
I nodded.“Absolutely.You can take the candle with you.It should have Catherine and Milo’s fingerprints on it.The door to the room is behind the potting shelves.I know the rest of that brown plaid shirt is down there.”
Osso and Kaknu shared a look.
“Okay, thank you for that,” Osso said, turning a page in his notebook.“We’ll need to figure out how to get a warrant to get down there.”He gestured to Kaknu.“And, yes, we have something we want you to read.”
Kaknu took an evidence bag from his pocket.It held a filthy men’s tie.I hesitated a moment, then took it from his hand.I stared at the familiar pattern, my gloved finger brushing over the plastic.Where had I seen this before?Then I remembered the dream.
“I dreamt about him.He was one of the ones buried right past the tree line at the camp.”
Osso and Hernández shared another look.
“Tell us about your dream,” Kaknu said.
I continued staring at the tie, taking a sip of juice.“It was night.The camp was abandoned.There was a strange sound.I followed it past the cabins to the edge of the trees.A car was parked with its trunk open and its headlights on.A man in a suit, wearing this tie, was lying on the ground in the beams of the headlights.The sound I heard was coming from outside the light.In the trees.Ghosts were gathered in the shadows, watching the killer digging a new grave.I recognized the child from the archery field, the teen from the pond, and the young man from the shelter.But there were others standing outside the light.Some were pointing in the killer’s direction.
“One was strange, though,” I continued.“She was like the man on the ground.She wore a suit and had a clipboard or portfolio or something under one arm.She pointed like the others, but then she gave me a huge smile and pantomimed something with her hand.It looked like she was shaking hands with someone, but spirits are hard to see in detail.They’re more of a hazy, transparent gray—at least to me.My cousin is a necromancer.She probably sees them in more detail.Anyway, the suited woman could have been showing me what she was doing when she was killed.”I shrugged.“It looked like shaking hands.”
The three of them were staring into space, absorbing that, then Kaknu gestured to the bag in my hand.“Could you read that for us?”
I opened the bag, took off my gloves, held the pearl in one hand, and touched a finger to the tie.
“Jack, no one has seen her in weeks.”It’s the man in the suit from the camp.He looks scared.His eyes dance around the room, never landing anywhere for too long, especially not on the man behind the desk.
“I told you.She said she needed time off for a vacation.She was seeing some new man.”He moved the pen on his desk two inches to the right and straightened it, so it was exactly parallel to the edge of the blotter.“If you need more information than that, you’ll need to ask her friends.”
His weight shifts from foot to foot, clearly nervous.“I did.Her mother checked her apartment.It looks like she left for work and never came back.Her luggage is still in her closet.Her clothes are all accounted for.”He clears his throat.“There was a pregnancy test in the bathroom trash.”
