“I think you’d better catch me up on what’s going on here,” Cash said evenly, his eyes darting between Chief Thomas and me, his shoulders tense.
“Friday morning we discovered a body laid out on a pentagram on North Beach, where the new condo development is going in. Someone killed him, drilled holes in his head, then planted seeds and saplings in the holes.”
“Saplings?” Cash said in confusion.
“Saplings. It looked like some sort of offering. There’s a Pagan festival in town, so the manner of death could fall in line with some sort of weird offering to the earth. Then we found a second body this morning,” Chief Thomas continued, rubbing his temples with his fingers. I felt kind of bad for him. Police work can be a thankless job sometimes.
“How was he murdered?” I asked softly, and Chief Thomas trained his eyes on me.
“This body was found where the hole for the foundation of the building has been dug. A chain had been wrapped around his neck and used to choke him.”
I shivered at the thought of it, shaking my head in confusion.
“I don’t understand. This is nothing like the othermurder. I’d thought it was Horace,” I said, then trailed off as Chief Thomas raised an eyebrow at me.
“Who’s Horace?”
I sighed, knowing I would have to backtrack now and go over the whole story. I didn’t want to even start with it all as I was really worried about where Luna was.
“Were you at that beach last night?” Cash interrupted as I was about to speak.
“No, we weren’t,” I insisted, shaking my head back and forth fervently.
“No, that’s right – you were coming from the other direction, very fast, now that I think about it,” Chief Thomas said, rubbing his hand along his chin.
“Luna got pulled over after we left the Pagan festival last night,” I said to Cash.
“Festival? I thought you said you were coming from a party, Ms. Rose. It seems like it’s one lie after another with you,” Chief Thomas said, anger making his cheeks flush red.
“Okay, here’s the truth,” I began, refusing to look at Cash.
Knowing I was about to lose him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“So you’re tellingme you were learning a magickal ritual, is that correct?” Chief Thomas asked again. I shrugged, refusing to meet Cash’s eyes, but I could feel how tense he was next to me.
“Not like, a bad one, or anything,” I began.
“But there was a pentagram,” Cash said, his voice angry.
“Not abadpentagram,” I insisted, turning to him.
“I don’t know what a bad one is,” Cash said, his lips thin with anger.
“Hey, I don’t really know either. That’s more Luna’s territory. I just know that if it’s facing up, or North, it’s a good one,” I explained helplessly.
“Okay, so what is the purpose of a good pentagram?” Chief Thomas asked gently.
“I honestly don’t know. I probably should, but I don’t. Basically Luna was teaching me the correct manner to cast a protective circle.”
“And why would someone need to cast a protectivecircle?” Chief Thomas said, as Cash swore and shook his head.
“Um, if you were going to run a ritual. You know, like setting a good intention, or seeking balance, bountiful harvest,” I was blathering at this point, so concerned with Cash’s dismissal of me that I didn’t really know what I was saying.
“So… a dead body with saplings in his head could be a good gift for a bountiful harvest?” Chief Thomas asked slowly.
“God no, that’s horrible. You don’t offer gifts. At least not that I’ve learned. You just protect yourself and run the ritual. I’m sorry, I wish I knew more.”
