Page 36 of Hextreme Measures

“You’re sure?”

“Yes. We’re more worried about you right now.”

“Well, I have no compulsion to join them. I can promise you that.” Cathy’s expression turned dark. “All of my anger is pointed at them now.”

Ofelia considered it. Was that the key? Had Cathy’s anger, moving from her husband to the banshee, tilted things so she couldn’t become a banshee? She needed to think on it. “We’re going to figure it out,” is what she said rather than ask another question. “You have my word.”

“What if you don’t, though?”

Ofelia merely shook her head. “That isn’t an option.”

NEXT ON THEIR LIST WAS Veronica Largo. She was a dim bulb. Ofelia figured that out right away. She had the dreams, just like Cathy, and her husband died the next day. She was never approached again, however. Ofelia had a sneaking suspicion she knew why.

“She’s a rampant narcissist,” Ofelia explained as they walked up the pathway to the final house, which was in Treme. “All she thinks about is herself. She’s incapable of getting angry enough about what happened to her husband because all that matters is that it affects her, and he apparently had a hefty life insurance policy.”

“There are a lot of working parts to this stuff,” Sully mused as he knocked.

Ofelia nodded. It was late in the afternoon now, and this was their last stop of the day. They had a family dinner on the books, and they both knew better than trying to miss it. Their mothers would melt down and cause more trouble than taking an hour out of their busy schedules would. They were both resigned to their fates.

They waited for somebody to answer the door, but nobody came.

Sully knocked again. And again. The curtains didn’t move. No lights came on. The house appeared empty.

Something felt off about the house, and Ofelia found herself looking closely as she walked near the windows. There was no movement inside, however, and from what she could see, there was nothing out of the ordinary about the house.

“What do you think?” she asked, her eyes moving to Sully. “Should we break in?”

He gave her a dark look. “Absolutely not. You can’t ask that of a police detective.”

Ofelia rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“We’re not doing that.” He was firm as he pulled a business card out of his back pocket and tucked it in the screen door frame. “We’ll come back tomorrow.”

Ofelia expected him to say that, so she merely nodded. “Okay. I guess we can do that. I would have been fine breaking in, too.”

Sully slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in tight at his side. “I do like that you have a bad girl thing going,” he whispered in his sultriest voice. “That was the thing that attracted me to you right out of the gate.”

“I thought it was my perky boobs.”

He snorted, then caught himself. “Yes, well, they were a tantalizing factor as well.”

“I figured.” Ofelia only separated from him when they got back to his truck. Before she climbed into the passenger seat, she sent one long look over her shoulder back at the house.

There was nobody there. They had no reason to believe there was. Yet something felt off about the entire thing.

“What was her name again?” Ofelia asked when she was fastening her seatbelt.

“Shirley Castle. Do you know her?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Is there something wrong?” Sully pinned his fiancée with a serious look. “Do you sense something?”

“I sense unease,” Ofelia replied.

“From somebody in the house?”

“From myself.”