Page 73 of Warrior Unraveled

Manus jabbed Pearce in the side. “Get in line.”

Wesley looked over his shoulder. “There’s enough for everybody.” Then he motioned to Aiden. “Come on, don’t keep us on tenterhooks. What happened with the housekeeper? Did she kill Faldo?”

“No,” Aiden said immediately. “But I know who did.”

Virginia looked up with interest. Finally a lead.

“I checked out Mrs. Jefferson. She’s widowed and lives in a small house in West Baltimore. Not exactly the best area. She keeps a neat house, and there was nothing that seemed out of place. Her kids are out of the house; the son lives in Philadelphia, and the daughter just had a baby and moved in with her boyfriend. Mrs. Jefferson was at home, crying herself to sleep, genuinely distressed about Faldo’s death. I guess he was good to her. Paid her well, too, from what I could see from her bank statements. Now she’s out of a job. That must hit her hard.”

Virginia sighed. “You said you know who killed him.”

“I’m getting to that. She has two nephews. I found their address in her papers, so I paid them a visit. They’re renting a small apartment together. It’s full of stolen merchandise. Everything from cell phones to watches to computers.”

“Anything from Faldo’s house?” Logan asked, looking up from the pancakes Wes had served him in the meantime.

“I couldn’t tell,” Aiden said, “but what I did find was blood. On a pair of sneakers.”

“Did you take a sample?” Manus asked. “I could run it through the system.”

“No. I did something even better. I called the police and gave them an anonymous tip.”

Hamish whistled through his teeth. “Nice one. Were they arrested?”

“I waited until the police came and took them away. With the stolen goods in their apartment there’s enough evidence to keep them for a while. In the meantime, I’m sure forensics is going to tie them to Faldo’s murder. It all makes sense.”

Wesley placed another plate heaped with pancakes on the island for everybody to help themselves. “There was no sign of a break-in. Are you thinking that they got their aunt’s key?”

Aiden nodded. “That’s my guess. She probably mentioned that Faldo was going to be gone for a week, so they figured it would be easy to get in and rob the place.”

Manus grunted. “Faldo must have surprised them, so they grabbed whatever weapon they could and killed him.”

“The paperweight from the desk,” Wes suggested.

Logan nodded. “Exactly. The police took it as evidence. It would have been covered in Faldo’s blood and possibly had their fingerprints on it, unless they wore gloves.”

“How can we know for sure it was them?” Virginia asked.

Aiden turned to her. “We’ll have to wait for the police to release that information. I’m sure it won’t take long.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, and Virginia glanced in the direction he’d indicated: a large TV mounted on the wall in the living area, muted and turned to a local channel. “I’m guessing it’ll be on the news soon.”

“Guess we’ll have to wait then. In the meantime,” Virginia said and shifted her gaze to Pearce. “What happened last night with Deirdre?”

“Everything went well. I bugged her place while she was asleep. We’ll know who she speaks to, and who visits her. And I put some trackers into several of her shoes and her handbag. We’ll know where she is at all times. We’re covered.”

Virginia nodded. “Good job. Did you notice anything strange about her?”

Pearce shrugged. “Given that she was asleep, there wasn’t anything I could detect. But everything in her place looked normal. The place is sparsely furnished, but that’s to be expected if she’s only been there for a few days.”

“Hmm.” Virginia contemplated his words. “What if she’s not planning to stay there for long? She’s still my top suspect. She knows where the compounds are.”

“So do a lot of people,” Hamish interrupted.

“But she has motive,” Virginia said. “And who else is there? We can’t exactly pin it on Finlay, he’s dead.”

“Who’s Finlay?” Wesley asked.

Hamish put his fork aside, glanced at Aiden, then said, “He was a traitor. A member of the Council of Nine. A little over a year ago, he made a pact with the demons. He was going to deliver Leila to them in exchange for taking over leadership of the demons.”

“Why?” Wes looked at Aiden. “No offense, Aiden, I know you love your wife, but why would the demons want her?”