“This has to stay between us,” I said. “I’m serious, Doris.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Doris popped a hip and rested her hand on it. “Who are you with? SIA? Council? Bounty?”
Seemed there was more to Doris Shutt than met the eye. I had two choices. Tell Doris the truth and hope she could keep her mouth shut and not blow my cover. Or silence her. Permanently. Lucky for Doris, I quite liked her.
“SIA,” I said. “And you?” She had to be, to recognize one of her own.
“SIA. Retired.”
My eyes narrowed. “Did Scott Harding send you here?” If Scott was responsible, that just might explain her name.
“Nope.” She turned her flashlight back to the body. “But we have a problem.”
One dead body. Death by magic? Or death by human hand?
“What does the rune mean, do you know?” I asked. “Is it a hex?”
“I think so, but it’s hard to see. Take a photo of it, would you?”
“Good idea.” After snapping some close-ups of the rune, I took photos of the crime scene, knowing that it would be off-limits as soon as the sheriff was notified. “Are there any other witches in Gravestone?” I asked as I worked, my mind immediately going to the women’s committee. Were they a secret coven?
Doris shrugged. “Some. Gravestone is the ideal place for supernaturals to hide out. It’s on a ley line that keeps our powers hidden.”
Interesting. No wonder Harding had sent me here. A ley line that hid supernaturals was the perfect spot, and I wondered how many others he stashed here. Quite a few, I’d imagine. I’d question Doris on this whole thing later. Right now, we had a more pressing problem. “I’m assuming the sheriff isn’t of a supernatural variety?”
“He’s as human as they come,” Doris confirmed, hustling away to begin searching the rest of the barn. I joined her. We needed something, a clue as to who had done this. There was no way Seth’s death had been natural causes. He was murdered. The why was obvious. Given that the barn was empty save for a couple of boxes that practically disintegrated at a touch, it didn’t take us long to come up empty-handed.
“Now what?” Doris asked.
“We call the sheriff.”
“Cover story?” Doris asked, pulling her phone from her bra.
“The truth—as close to it without giving us away. Tell him we overheard the workers talking about a hidden track and decided to check it out. He was going to find out anyway, considering your car is stuck out on the main road.”
While Doris made the call, I circled the remains, studying them. I really wanted to roll the victim onto his back but knew Calder would have a heart attack if we touched the body. Plus, we didn’t need any of our DNA to contaminate the scene. Calder already suspected I was involved. I didn’t need to add fuel to that particular fire.
I straightened from where I’d been examining the floor. “What confuses me is why hide the body out here? Why not bury it? Instead, they’ve left him somewhat exposed.”
Doris chewed her lip, messing up her lipstick. “You’re right. It’s a horrible hiding place. While the barn is remote and kinda hidden, anyone could accidentally stumble across it.”
“Unless that’s what they wanted? Someone was counting on his body being found?”
“They’ve had a long wait,” Doris mumbled, standing at who we assumed to be Seth’s feet, her eyes trailing along his body.
I turned my attention to the rune in his hand. Magic. It had to be. But why did Seth have the rune? Was it a form of protection, in which case, it failed? Or had the killer used it as a weapon?
“What you said before? About Gravestone being on a ley line and hiding our magic… does that mean I can use my magic, and it won’t be detected?” Harding had told me under no circumstances was I to use my magic. Had he lied? The irony!
“Pretty much.” She shrugged.
“The Gravestone Women’s Committee… are they a coven?”
She grinned. “Not exactly. The sheriff will be here any minute; we can discuss all that later. Right now, we need to find out who is responsible for this.” She jerked her thumb toward Seth.
“And how did his hand end up at my house?”
“Exactly.”
“If this is Seth,” I jerked my head toward the body dressed in faded blue jeans and a plaid shirt, size eleven scuffed and worn boots, “was he killed by magic? And was he a witch or warlock or some other supernatural entity?”
“You want to know if we’re dealing with a standard human homicide or if this is paranormal.” Doris crossed her arms, eyes locked on Seth as if she could find the answers in his bones.
“He decomposed quickly,” I observed, although I already knew the heat and humidity of Gravestone contributed to that.
“The heat. And the critters.”
“But the body doesn’t look disturbed. If animals got to him, his bones would be strewn around.” The body was remarkably intact except for the left forearm and hand, which was currently wrapped in plastic and duct-taped to a branch on the cedar elm in my backyard.
“Insect critters,” she clarified.
The sound of our names being called carried on the night air. The sheriff had arrived. Exchanging a look with Doris, I stepped out of the barn, cupped my hands around my mouth, and yelled back, “Here!”
I could see a light in the distance, watched as Calder jogged along the dirt track, the light bobbing up and down, casting arcs in the inky blackness of the night sky. He appeared out of the darkness; his powerful flashlight swung over the barn, then landed on me, where I stood in the open doorway.
“You okay?” He slowed to a brisk walk.
“We’re fine.”
“Do I even want to know what the two of you are doing out here? And how on earth did Doris’s car end up halfway up the bank?”
“Sheer curiosity, I’m afraid,” I replied. “We overheard some workmen talking about a hidden road they’d discovered, and well, basically, we wanted to beat them to the punch. They said they were going to check it out when they’d finished sealing the road.”
Calder’s brow furrowed. “Why? It’s just a road. Not even. More of a track. A path.”
“But it was hidden.” And I, for one, could not resist a mystery. If the track hadn’t been deliberately hidden, I wouldn’t have been interested. But it had been, so I was. It was one of the reasons I’d become an SIA agent to begin with. I loved a good puzzle, and I was tenacious. Not everyone thought those traits endearing.
“Oh, good, you’re here.” Doris stepped out of the barn. “We found Seth. What’s left of him.”
Calder brushed past me, muttering something under his breath I couldn’t make out. Pretty sure it was about Doris and me poking our noses in where they didn’t belong.
Shrugging, I followed. He stood next to Doris, the pair of them staring at the skeleton on the floor of the barn.
“Weird, huh?” Doris quipped, crossing her arms.
“You got that right. What is this, occult?” Calder pointed to the rune.
Doris rammed her elbow into his ribs so hard he staggered back. “It’s Seth Saltzman, isn’t it? I’m right, aren’t I?” She threw me a wink over her shoulder.
“The clothing would be something Seth would wear, but we’ll have to wait for forensics to confirm.” Calder walked around the body, snapping photos with his phone. “May have a wallet or other ID in his pocket.” He crouched by the remains and carefully patted down the skeleton, extracting a wallet from the front pocket of the jeans. Flipping it open, he examined the contents.
“Well?” Doris demanded.
“Seth Saltzman,” Calder confirmed, closing the wallet. Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a Ziplock bag and dropped the wallet into it. Then he picked up the rune, holding it up while Doris shone the flashlight on it. “What’s this?”
Now that I could get a good look at the rune, I was shocked. My hand went to the similar rune inked onto my collarbone.
“See that?” I whispered to Doris.
“See what? The rock?” she whispered back.
“No. The rune carved into the rock.”
“Kinda looks like yours, right?”
Of course, our whispering drew Calder’s attention. “What are you two whispering about? Do you know something about this?” He waved the rock in the air.
I automatically shook my head. “Nope. Just wondering what Seth was doing with a rock in his hand. Kinda odd, don’t you think?”
Calder’s eyes narrowed, and his jaw hardened. “I think you know more than you’re saying.”
I blinked, not sure what to say to that, so I said nothing. He pointed at my face. “That right there? That gives you away.”
I reeled back in shock. “What? My face?” I turned to Doris. “What’s wrong with my face?”
Doris rounded on Calder. “Yeah, what’s wrong with her face? That’s just plain rude, Calder. I expected better from you.”
His face suffused with color, and a vein pulsed in his temple. “That wasn’t what I meant, and you know it.” He pointed to the barn door. “Out. Both of you, wait outside.”
And that’s when the unthinkable happened. Doris turned right, I turned left, and we collided in the middle, which wouldn’t have been a big deal, except thanks to the walking boot, I lost my balance and staggered, bumping into Calder. The rune was jostled from his grip, and I automatically stuck my hand out to catch it. As soon as the rock touched my palm, I may as well have been dipped in a vat of acid. The pain was immediate and excruciating.
It felt like my body was being slashed with thousands of razors, my magic draining away with each cut. Pain radiated through me, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. A scream echoed in my head, and tears streamed down my cheeks before I felt an arm wrap around my waist and swing me off my feet, the rune slipping through my fingers to fall to the floor.