Sins of the Demon

  My front door opened, and Ryan stepped out. He gave the various cops a polite nod, closed the door behind him, and came down the steps to join me. I gave him a grateful smile. “Thanks,” I murmured.

  “Anytime,” he said, warm affection in his eyes.

  A fourth car came down the driveway and parked next to Sarge’s. “Who’s that?” Ryan asked.

  “That’s my chief,” I told him. “He’s cool. He’ll make sure this doesn’t become…” I trailed off as both doors opened, and the chief and Mayor Fussell exited the car.

  “Oh, hell no.” I strode forward. “With all due respect to both of you, Chief Turnham, he—” I jabbed a finger at the mayor “—is not allowed into my house.”

  Chief Turnham gave me a pained look. “Detective Gillian—”

  “No,” I stated as firmly as I could. I planted myself in my driveway between them and my house. “He’s not law enforcement. He has zero jurisdiction or authorization to enter my residence. I absolutely do not give consent for him to enter.”

  I swung around to the deputy who was watching the proceedings with thinly veiled amusement. “If he sets foot anywhere inside my residence or any of the outbuildings, I intend to press charges for trespassing.”

  The deputy grinned, spat a stream of brown onto my gravel. “Works for me.”

  The mayor narrowed his eyes, then turned to the chief. “Robert, are you going to put up with this?”

  Chief Turnham looked from me to the mayor and spread his hands. “Not much I can do. She’s right.”

  Mayor Fussell’s face flushed red as he rounded on the deputy. “This woman is suspected of serial murder. Do you seriously intend to keep me from assisting in the search for evidence?”

  The deputy spat another stream of tobacco juice then hiked his belt up. “With all due respect, yer mayorness, you ain’t a cop,” he drawled in his thick country accent, “and Louisiana Revised Statute title fourteen section sixty-two point three says that if she says yer ass can’t go in there and you do, then I can arrest yer ass.” He folded his arms over his broad chest and smiled a gap-toothed smile at the mayor.

  Mayor Fussell’s face went cold, and he turned and stalked back to the car without another word. The chief sighed heavily. “Gillian, I respect that you have the right to ban him from your house, but was that really necessary?”

  I met his gaze. “I wouldn’t have done it if it wasn’t, sir.” And why the hell is Mayor Fussell so keen to get inside my house?

  I leaned against my car, crossed my arms over my chest. Ryan came beside me and crossed his arms in an echo of my stance. I couldn’t match his dark glower, though. I needed to work on that.

  I saw that Jill and Votevha had retreated to the back of the house and were sitting on a bench, observing with a careful disinterest. There was no way to know where Eilahn had gone, but I knew she’d stay out of sight. I continued to give the mayor the stink eye while the others entered my house. Tracy gave me another look full of regret as he followed the rest in, a camera slung about his neck. Usually someone from the crime lab came along on search warrants to photograph and record the scene.

  “I hope Jill doesn’t get in trouble for being here,” I murmured, suddenly worried.

  “Relax,” Ryan replied softly. “She’ll be fine.”

  I wasn’t convinced. The mayor was definitely the sort to carry a grudge. Maybe he wouldn’t even realize she was a Beaulac PD employee.

  “By the way,” I said, “Roman’s not our guy.”

  Ryan grimaced. “I know. Eilahn filled me in. When she wasn’t ordering me to scrub, that is.”

  I bit back a laugh. “Is it wrong if I say, I wish I could have seen that?”

  “You’re a mean woman, Kara Gillian.”

  I hugged my arms around me as I listened to footsteps in my house. I’d conducted any number of search warrants in my years in law enforcement, and I’d always done my best to try and ignore the looks on the people’s faces as we violated their privacy and rummaged through their personal belongings. It was horrible and intrusive, but I could try to take solace in the fact that I’d done my best to make sure it was done with the goal of preventing or solving a crime.

  But this was complete fucking bullshit. This was someone fucking with my life just to fuck with it. I resisted the urge to shoot a death glare at the mayor. “Is it just me,” I muttered to Ryan, “or does the mayor seem hell-bent on getting into my house?”

  Ryan flicked me a glance. “You think he could be the summoner?”

  I cast a sideways look at Peter Fussell. “Fuck, I don’t know, but he sure is acting weird. I mean, I know he hates me, but what if all this is just because he wants a look at my summoning chamber? Or the storage diagram?”

  A grimace passed over Ryan’s face. “If so, he’s tipping his hand pretty heavily. And how would he know about it anyway?”

  “He could have learned of it from a demon,” I said after some brief thought. “I’ve used it to summon quite a few demons, so I would imagine that word has spread a bit.” I jammed my hands into my pockets and hunched my shoulders. “This sucks.” I didn’t mind them sifting through my not-so-delicates, but the thought of them rooting around my basement made my stomach hurt.

  “Can you get the demon you just summoned to check him out?” Ryan asked.

  “That would be ideal,” I replied, “I’ll need to renegotiate terms with him.” I glanced at my watch. “Shit. Maybe not. He’s been here for a long time.” At Ryan’s questioning look I explained, “The lower-level demons can only stay a couple of hours. Not like reyza who can stay most of a day or longer.” In fact I really needed to dismiss the nyssor soon, but I couldn’t do that until all the searchers had left. Crap. I didn’t want to draw attention to the demon by going to check on him. Instead I pulled my phone out and thumbed in a quick text to Jill. How is he doing?

  A few seconds later the reply came: he says he’s tired. Yep, I’d have to find another way to check out the mayor.

  It was nearly twenty minutes later when Chief Turnham emerged, followed by my sergeant and Tracy.

  The mayor straightened and lifted his chin as the chief walked down my steps. “Well? Did you find the evidence you need?”

  I was thrilled to see the Chief Turnham give the mayor a withering look. “No, we didn’t find any evidence. I told you this was a waste of time.”

  Well, that confirmed my suspicion that Mayor Fussell had been the supreme driving force behind this crap.

  Fussell’s face twisted into a scowl. “You didn’t look hard enough. Get back in there and tear the place apart! She has drugs hidden in there somewhere. You know she had to have poisoned those people!”

  Chief Turnham’s eyes narrowed, but I didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Hey, asshole!” I shouted as I stalked over toward him. “You got a problem with me, that’s fine, but while you’re dicking around with this shit, the real killer’s sitting back laughing at us.” Unless it’s you, I added in a silent death glare.

  He drew himself up. “What did you call me?”

  I stopped, thought back to my words. “I’m pretty sure I called you an asshole. But that was wrong of me to do. I meant to call you a complete blithering fucking asshole idiot.”

  “Gillian!” The chief’s voice snapped out. “That’s enough.”

  I struggled to hold onto my anger. I had the cuff on—this was my own very righteous fury. “Really? He won’t be happy until he tears my house to the ground to look for evidence that doesn’t fucking exist! I want him off my property. Now!”

  “Detective Gillian, dial it down,” he said through gritted teeth.

  I took a ragged breath. “Certainly, sir. But as a citizen, I respectfully state that this man is not welcome on my property.

  Fussell sneered. “I’m an elected official. I’m on official business.”

  The deputy cleared his throat. “Nope. Yer out of yer jurisdiction, and yer not law enforcement. Under title fourteen section sixty-three, if she forb
ids you to stay on her property, and you don’t leave, then I’m obliged to carry out my duty as an officer of the law.” He spat, then added. “Y’ain’t my boss, Mister Mayor.”

  Fussell stared at the deputy, then spun and marched back to the chief’s car, got in, and slammed the door.

  The chief gave me a dark glare. “Gillian, the only reason you didn’t just earn yourself a suspension for insubordination is because, as you said, you were acting as a citizen and not as an officer of the law, and these were most assuredly extenuating and trying circumstances. But, from here on out, if you so much as look sideways at the mayor, or fail to calm your shit down when I tell you to, you’ll be out of a job so fast your head will spin. Am I clear?”

  I’d never seen the chief so angry. And especially not at me. “Yes, sir,” I replied, as meekly as I could.

  He turned, stalked to his car, and drove off. I let out an unsteady breath and then turned to the deputy. “Thank you. Seriously, you have no idea how grateful I am.”

  He chuckled. “No problem. Fussell’s my brother-in-law. He’s a complete dickweed. This was the most fun I’ve had in months.” Giving me a wink, he climbed into his car then headed off down my driveway.

  Smiling weakly, I walked back to my house. Sarge stood on the bottom step.

  “Did y’all take anything?” I asked. By law if anything was seized, they had to provide a receipt.

  “Just pictures,” he said. “Probably would have seized your computer, except apparently you don’t have one.” He cocked an eyebrow at me. I replied with an innocent shrug. “Anyway,” he continued, “sorry about all this.”

  “Not your fault.” I glanced back at Tracy. “Just, please make sure those pics don’t get out. I don’t trust the mayor. He’s up to something.”

  “They won’t,” Tracy assured me gravely. “Promise.”

  “Thanks, y’all,” I said, suddenly insanely weary.

  “But, Kara?” Tracy said. I turned back and gave him a questioning look. “You might want to do something about that bag of old gym clothes in your closet.” He gave a comic shudder. “Next time warn a brother!”

  “Damn,” I said. “I should have given those to the mayor!”

  Chapter 17

  The first thing I did after everyone left was to go to where Jill and Votevha were waiting. The demon sat with his legs pulled to his chest, face pale. Jill shot me a worried look. “I don’t think he feels good.”

  “He’s been here for several hours,” I said as I crouched in front of Votevha. “Forgive me for the delay, honored one. I am deeply grateful for your service. Are you ready to go back?”

  Votevha nodded, then bared his teeth in a razor-tipped smile. “Fun.”

  I grinned. “I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

  Standing, I gave Jill a nod. She scrambled back while I began the dismissal chant, but then I stopped and scowled. Hard to pull potency when you’re blocked from the arcane. “I’m sorry, Votevha. We need to get onto the back porch so that I can be inside the wards.”

  The demon nodded and trotted to the porch. I joined him there, pulled the cuff off. I had absolutely no doubt that Eilahn had restored the wards the instant the interlopers had left. Once again I began the dismissal chant, exhaling in pleasure as the power came into my control. Pulling potency, I focused on the bindings that held the demon in this world, shaping the portal that would pull him back to his own. A wind rose, bringing with it the stench of sulfur as a light-filled slit widened behind Votevha. A few seconds later a ripping crack split the quiet of my backyard, and the demon was gone.

  I sank to sit on the back steps until the spots could fade from my vision. Dismissals were like sprinting while holding your breath. A rustle from the woods grabbed my attention, but before I could even think to find a weapon Zack emerged from the woods, carrying a large cardboard box. Grinning, he came up to the steps and set it down in front of me.

  “We figured you didn’t want anyone seeing this stuff,” he explained.

  Puzzled, I looked down into the box then laughed at the sight of the knife and candles and various implements I used for my summonings, as well as half a dozen books with titles that would likely raise eyebrows.

  “I have the best friends in the world,” I announced as Ryan and Eilahn came out to join us.

  “Anytime, babe,” Jill said. “At least that’s over.”

  “For now,” I replied. I went inside and did a quick prowl through my house and basement to be absolutely certain nothing had been unduly disturbed. Other than the clothing in my drawers being a bit mussed, everything seemed to be all right. I headed to the living room where the others had gathered, and flopped onto the couch. Eilahn was looking out the window with a troubled look on her face.

  “Is something wrong, Eilahn?”

  She glanced my way. “I am troubled that it was necessary to destroy your storage diagram.”

  I grimaced and ran both hands through my hair. “Yeah, well at least I was able to use it to get Votevha here to check Roman.” Then I made a disparaging noise. “Not that it mattered.” I heaved a sigh. “And at least I kept Mayor Asshole out of here. But now he’s my number one suspect for being the mystery summoner, and it would have been damn nice to be able to get a demon to verify that for me.”

  “He did seem most eager to enter.” Her mouth pursed in a frown. “But I thought perhaps it had more to do with this.” She extended her hand to show me a baggie of white powder. “Am I correct in assuming it is contraband of some sort?”

  “Yowza,” Jill said, eyes going wide.

  I took a careful breath. “Where did you get that?”

  Eilahn tilted her head. “It was in his right coat pocket.” A whisper of satisfied amusement lit her eyes. “I noticed that he kept his hand very near that pocket, and would often dip his hand into it as if to make certain that something was there. I was curious to see what he was so concerned about.”

  I took the baggie from her and peered at the contents. “Well, I have a good feeling it is contraband, but unlike on TV, one does not taste the drug to find out what it is. I don’t happen to have a field test on me, but it doesn’t matter. I’m quite sure this is either cocaine or heroin, and it’s about to get flushed.” Renewed anger suffused me. “He was going to plant it. What a cocksucker!” I shot her a grateful look. “Nice job picking his pocket.”

  “I replaced it with a similar substance,” she said. “I have hopes he will not notice the exchange.”

  “You seriously rock,” I said fervently. “What’d you use?”

  “Powdered sugar.” Vicious amusement lit her eyes. “Though I admit I was tempted to replace it with the ant killer in your shed.”

  I laughed. “And that, boys and girls, is why you never taste the drugs!”

  The cat stalked in and rubbed against Eilahn, then walked across Jill’s lap and onto Zack’s lap to thrust her head into his face. He gave a surprised laugh, then obediently scratched Fuzzykins behind her ears.

  Jill smiled and reached over to give her a pet. “What a sweetie kitty!” Bemused, I watched as Fuzzykins bumped her head briefly against Jill’s hand in cursory appreciation of the adoration, then returned to her passion fit on Zack’s lap.

  “That’s a bizarre cat,” Ryan muttered.

  “Yeah, she hates me and Ryan, but she seems to go nuts for, um,” I stopped myself and quickly fumbled for something to say besides demons. “Um, Zack and Eilahn. Do y’all use the same kind of soap or something?” I forced out a laugh while Zack gave me a Seriously? look.

  “Maybe she’s mellowed,” Ryan said. He leaned forward and reached a hand out, then quickly pulled it back as the cat turned on him with a snarl and hiss. “Or not.”

  We lapsed into silence, broken only by the cat’s insane purring. My thoughts continued to rampage madly. Too much I needed to be doing. I needed to rebuild my storage diagram and start channeling power back into it. I needed to figure out who the fuck was killing these people and why, so that I could get
my job back.

  “Perhaps I could make waffles,” Eilahn said. “Is it too late in the day for waffles?”

  “It’s never too late for waffles,” I told her, relieved at any excuse for a distraction. She smiled in satisfaction and headed to the kitchen.

  “Your computer and the map are out in my car,” Ryan told me. “I’ll go and get them now.”

  Zack gently removed Fuzzykins from his lap. “I’ll help,” he said.

  The two men left. I looked over at Jill. She had a smile on her face, but it seemed strained and I could see lines of worry around her eyes. I gave myself a mental kick. I’d been so preoccupied with my own crap that I hadn’t even paid attention to how she was doing.

  “How are things with Zack?” I watched her face as I asked. I didn’t like it, but I had a horrible sneaking hope the two of them would break up. Not because I wished ether of them ill, but more because I really didn’t like that Zack wasn’t being honest with her. Or was he? Had he finally come clean to her?

  “Well,” she said, spreading her hands. “Things are great.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “I sense a ‘but’ coming.”

  She shrugged and smiled, but it was unsteady. “I like him. Hell, I’m crazy about him. He treats me like a goddamn queen, we have a lot of fun together, the sex is great, we seem to be really compatible…”

  “But?” I prompted, biting back the urge to say “But he’s a demon.” Let her say it, I thought, relieved. Zack had finally told her. At least that was one stress off me.

  She took a deep breath. “But things are suddenly moving really…fast.”

  I waited.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  I had no doubt that the expression on my face was a combination of shock, horror, disbelief, and nothing else that could make her think I was possibly happy for her. I fought to put a smile on my face, but it wasn’t happening.

  “It’s Zack’s?” I asked, somehow keeping my voice in a mostly normal register.

  A scowl flashed across her face. “No, it’s Pellini’s! We’ve been doing the nasty in the back of the van after every crime scene. Of course it’s Zack’s.”