Page 9 of Hell’s Half Acre

Which made her adore him.

Helly nudged her gently. “His favorite place to gamble was in the Old West. He was quite the cardsharp.”

The image in her mind of him dressed like a cowboy was something she didn’t need at the moment.

Damn.

Thankfully, the three ghosts staring at them drove that thought away. “Luke wasn’t kidding about how haunted this place is, was he?”

“Yeah. I don’t like coming out here. Too much tragedy, even for me.” Helly rubbed her hands down her bare arms as if trying to chase away a chill.

That made Sorcha curious. “Do you think this is another soul-eater case?”

Helly shook her head. “This is something else.”

“How so? I just see the ghosts. What are you detecting that I don’t?”

She twitched her nose around like Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched. “Werewolf. It’s a pungent stench you don’t forget.”

Since Sorcha had never been around one that she knew of, she’d have to take Helly’s word for it. She didn’t smell anything other than honeysuckle and humidity.

“I better get out of sight.” Helly vanished.

Sorcha always wondered why Helly did that at crime scenes. Though the imp wasn’t one of their detectives, she did have her own badge. And when she didn’t have horns, she appeared as human as anyone else. She could easily stay with them and pretend to be an investigator.

Then again, it made sense that she didn’t want to hang around. Homicide scenes were rough.

Especially with the memories Sorcha had. While she hadn’t seen Siobhan’s scene in person, she’d reviewed the photos so many times that it was impressed into her memory every bit as deeply as all the homicides she’d investigated since then.

One day, sis, I will bring justice for you and closure for Mom and Dad.

That was the one promise she prayed she’d be able to keep. Otherwise, the hole in her soul would never heal.

Then again, she doubted if even justice would close it. It ran way too deep.

Trying not to think about it, she pulled her latex gloves out of her crossbody bag. She caught up to Luke right as Rory’s black police Charger drove up and parked beside Luke’s possessed car.

Luke cursed at the sight. “Didn’t we just leave him? Can’t we have one case without Detective Dick shadowing us?”

“He’s a lead homicide detective.” Made sense he’d be here.

Luke screwed his face into an adorable expression of distaste as he headed for the body, and left her to greet Rory who felt the same way about Luke. They fought like errant brothers who’d been forced to live in a closet for a month.

Tall and lean, Rory Corvan would be devastating if she hadn’t just been talking to Luke. With short black hair and a well-trimmed beard, he held himself like most police officers. Tough, stern, and observant. Even so, his presence wasn’t nearly as commanding as Luke’s.

Nor was it as intimidating. Rory was too sweet for that, which was one of the problems Luke had with him. Luke always saw the angel part, and that ran up against Luke’s infernal tendencies.

“How did y’all beat me here?” Rory asked as he approached her.

She shrugged. “You have any details to share?”

“Not much. There’s been a couple of break-ins lately so patrol was doing a routine check when they spotted something on the ground. Once they got closer, they realized it was a body.”

Sorcha winced as pain swept through her. Those words always brought an image of her sister’s crime scene photos to her. God, how she hated the pain she knew this new family would feel.

No one deserved that.

“Anything else?” she asked him.