CHAPTER 4

The sparsely furnished guest bedroom at Lily’s consisted of a full-size bed with a worn but clean quilt. The colorful blanket made of l and sage green blocks had belonged to Lily’s great-great-grandmother. It had been handed down from one daughter to the next until Lily’s mom was presented with it on her wedding day. Now that her mom was dead, Lily had become its keeper. I envied her the cozy history of a loving family, something I’d never really experienced. My mother had been a cold woman.

The rest of the room had been designed for utility. There was an ironing board in the corner. Several large, green storage tubs—the kind you can pick up at the general store—were stacked near the closet. The vanity had an oval mirror that had lost a distracting amount of silvering.

I sat on the edge of the bed staring at Danny’s slim police file. Despite Nichols’ order, I’d snuck it out of the police station. Screw Dick and his attitude about me and my investigation. Besides, it had been difficult to concentrate with Ford’s scent covering every inch of the place. As I read through the limited investigation, the thing that angered me the most was how little had been done to find Danny’s killer. It made me want to punch someone in the throat.

I rolled over on the mattress and combed through what information the police had gathered. Next, I jotted down a few key details and photographed anything else I thought important. The crime scene report had been written by Dennis Mitchel. He’d been the lead detective on the case. I’d asked for a meeting with him, but Ford had told me he’d taken a leave of absence for a family emergency. Bad for me. Good for Mitchel. I wanted to grill his nards over an open flame. There were more holes in this investigation than a colander.

The report said that Danny’s body was found in a folded heap in an abandoned barn out on the edge of town. The property had gone into foreclosure five years earlier and was currently owned by the bank. Very little blood had been found at the scene other than a small amount that had dried around Danny’s mouth. His face had been as bloated and purple as the rest of his body. Unidentifiable.

If it hadn’t been for the wallet in his pocket that contained his driver’s license, it would’ve taken much longer to identify him. Along with the license, his wallet contained a Paradise Falls Grocer card, a family picture of him and Lily with their parents when he was five years old, and seven dollars in ones.

The toxicology report showed trace evidence of ketamine, barely enough to even effect a shifter. The autopsy report confirmed what Lily had told me. Every bone in Danny’s body had been broken. Not a single one had been missed, from the individual plates in his skull down to the tips of his toes. Even the tiny bones inside his ears had been cracked. No wonder he’d been unrecognizable in the crime scene photos.

I felt sick while reading about the 205 bones broken before the rib fracture that punctured his heart. Who or what could’ve done that? Be so precise? And how long had they made Danny suffer?

I shuddered, pushing the thought to the back of my mind.

Other than his body, no other material evidence had been found. No fingerprints, stray hairs, or fibers. There had been no footprints at the scene either. Someone had managed to kill Danny and dump his body in a dirt-floor barn without leaving even the tiniest scuff mark behind.

I had to stop thinking of the victim as Danny. I had to put my emotions aside if I wanted to be the person Lily needed me to be, but the more I read about the case, the harder it was to stay dispassionate.

Lily’s gentle knock on the door had me closing my notes fast and shoving them and the police file under the pillow. She cracked the door open.

“Hey,” she said, her eyes red with exhaustion. “Can I come in?”

“Of course,” I said a little too brightly. “It’s been a rough day, huh?”

“Rough year,” she amended.

I was an idiot. “Gosh, I’m sorry, Lils. I didn’t mean⁠—”

Her simple smile let me off the hook. “I’ve missed you. I’m so glad you’re here.” She leaned forward, and her smile grew wider. “I can’t believe Dick Knuckles had you hauled down to the station. What a butt-wipe.”

“No kidding.” I patted the bed as an invitation for her to sit next to me. “And who the hell does Officer Baylor think he is, threatening to cuff me? I’m a federal agent, for the love of Pete.”

“You mean Officer Woo-woo, don’t you?” Her smile verged on a grin now as she took the offer. “Or at least that’s what you called him in high school. Ford “Woo-woo” Baylor, because every time you saw him, you’d say woo-woo.”

A hot flush crept to my cheeks. “I’m not having this conversation.”

“Woooo-woo,” she teased. “You pined for that boy like nobody’s business our senior year.”

“Because it was nobody’s business,” I countered. I had to admit, I was glad to see Lily having fun, even if it was at my expense. I smirked. “I crushed on him hardcore, didn’t I?”

“Uhm, if by hardcore you mean writing Mrs. Haze Baylor all over your spiral notebooks and tennis shoes every day, then yes, I’ll agree, you crushed on him hardcore.”

“I hate you.”

“You’re a detective.” Lily spread her hands wide. “The evidence speaks for itself.”

I laughed. She wasn’t wrong. I think there were a few textbooks I’d graffitied as well. Ford had been, as my teenage self would have said, dreamy. Nothing had changed in that department. He still looked and smelled better than any man I’d ever met.

“I’m sure he’s happily married with a dozen cubs by now.” I frowned at the unhappy thought.

“You know therians actually have babies, right?”

“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “Did he marry Greta Sharp?” She’d been a bear shifter like Ford, and the two of them had been Prom King and Queen our senior year.

“He didn’t mate with Greta.”

“Then who?”

Lily grinned. “He’s single.”

A wave of adrenaline rushed through me, raising gooseflesh on my skin. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope. I hear about him dating occasionally, but nothing has stuck.” She gave me a meaningful look, which I poo-pooed away.

“He barely remembered me from high school, Lily. Besides, I’ve moved on with my life.”

“I can see that by the ring on your finger and your phone gallery full of pictures of your children.”

“Smart-ass.”

“Smart cougar,” she corrected. “The ass shifters live in another part of town.”

We fell into a fit of laughter verging on hysteria. Frankly, it was better than crying our eyes out. After a few minutes, we settled down. Lily reclined on the bed next to me, both of us staring at the flaking popcorn ceiling.

“I used to love coming here,” I told her. “It was my favorite place in Paradise Falls.” I turned my head and looked at her. “Amend that. Anywhere we could hang out together was my favorite place to be.”

“Same here,” she told me. Her voice was quiet as she asked, “What happened to Boyd? The morgue guys rolled out something large and lumpy in a black zipped-up bag. It didn’t look like a person was in there.”

The horrific image of Boyd waving at me with black claws popped into my head. I shuddered. “It didn’t look much like a person out of the bag, either.”

“How awful.”

“Did Danny and Boyd hang out?”

“Do you think the two deaths are related?”

“No. Maybe. I don’t know.” The two deaths were months apart, but the unusual circumstances of both cases made me wonder. “I’ll have to wait and see what Boyd’s autopsy shows. The only two things both of them have in common is the bizarre, unexplained nature. I mean, Boyd looked like something out of a D horror movie.”

“Magic or was it a physical attack?” she asked.

I shook my head. “It looked like something only witch magic could do. However, I didn’t feel any residual magic in the room or on the victim.”

She cast me a wary glance that made my heart hurt. “Are you sure?”

“I cross my heart, Lily.” I touched her hand. “Do you think Danny’s death was caused by a spell?”

She shrugged, her green eyes sparkling with unshed tears. “I don’t know. I thought maybe…but the medical examiner had said no. It all felt like someone was trying to cover something up.”

“I don’t blame you for being suspicious. I thought Boyd’s death was magical as well, which is why I checked. But honest, Lils, I felt nothing.”

“Well, you always say you’re a terrible witch. Can you be wrong?”

I forced a smile because I knew she was only half teasing about the terrible witch comment. “Not in this case. I may not be any good at spellcasting and such, but it’s innate in my kind to be able to feel our kind of magic. And there is no spell that can block it because we’d feel the blocking spell.”

She nodded. “And was Boyd like… Was he broken like Danny?”

“No.” I shuddered as I thought about Boyd’s misshapen form. “If I hadn’t seen him for myself—like, if I’d seen it in a picture or on the computer—I would have thought he was photoshopped. I’d never seen anything so awful.”

“Tell me.”

“I don’t know, Lils. It’s kind of terrible.”

“I’m not a delicate flower, Haze. No matter what my parents named me.”

That’s my Lily, I thought. She might only be a tiny five feet two inches, but she was always the stronger one between the two of us. I’d relied on her strength so many times when we were young. Then her parents died.

Shame filled me. I’d left her behind. I had been so caught up in my own drama with my mother’s death, and my father being hauled off to jail for her murder. Before his mother had come to take him away, he’d told me to leave Paradise Falls as soon as I could, and I did. I couldn’t run soon enough or fast enough for my taste. And over the years, I’d rarely looked back.

“Come on, Hazel,” Lily said. “I need to know.”

I sighed. “Okay, I’m not sure how to describe it though. Uhm, have you ever heard of those weird twin tumors, where they find big lumps of flesh with teeth and hair and other gross stuff inside someone?”

“I’m pretty sure that’s called a teratoma.”

Her knowledge of the term reminded me that she’d wanted to go to medical school. Her parents’ deaths had sure sent her down a different path. It was amazing how family crisis and drama could turn a life around.

“A teratoma, yes. So, you know what I’m talking about.”

“Yes.”

“Well, that’s what Boyd looked like, only person-sized and with skin.” I didn’t mention the arm hanging out of his backside. “It was as if someone made him a twisted pretzel inside his own skin.”

“You’re right,” Lily said. “It’s terrible. That sounds as bizarre as what happened to Danny.” She tapped me on the shoulder with the back of her hand. “What can do that, if not witch magic? I mean, shifters are strong, but I don’t know if they have the finesse to do all this.”

“I don’t know, Lily. Not yet. But whatever it is, it’s evil, Lils. And real evil has a steep price tag. Magic or not, I’m not ruling out witches. It may not be witchcraft, but something unnatural or supernatural did that to Boyd and possibly to Danny.”

“If it is witches, what can you do?”

“I have the Grand Inquisitor’s blessing to investigate, but I’m not sure I’m equipped to deal with a powerful witch. I have a gun, but someone strong could spell it away with a few words. And as you already said, I’m a terrible witch. My magic seems to always backfire on me.”

“You mean like when you accidentally knocked yourself out when you sent a current of electricity into your locker, and it backfired on you.”

I gave her a sour look. “Yes. Like that.”

She giggled.

My cell phone rang, saving me from having her provide me with several more examples of my ineptitude. The number was “Unknown.” I answered, “Special Agent Kinsey,” out of habit.

“This is Officer Baylor,” a deep, sexy voice said on the other end. My stomach dropped, and my palms began to sweat. “Can we meet for coffee?”

“Uhm…”

Lily’s eyes widened as she mouthed the word “yes.”

“Yes,” I said. “Sure.”

“Lolo’s Diner on Elysium Street in an hour?”

Lily nodded at me emphatically. I glared at her. “I’ll be there,” I told Ford. “With bells on.” I disconnected the call, kicking myself for the last part. I looked at Lily. “With bells on? Seriously? Why the hell did I say that for?”

“Because you looo-ooove him,” she crooned. “Love makes you stupid.”

“You’re stupid,” I told her as I devolved into my fifteen-year-old self again. “I don’t love him.”

“Of course not, Mrs. Haze Baylor.” Lily leaped from the bed and grabbed my suitcase. “Now let’s find you something to wear.”

“This isn’t a date.”

“You don’t know what it is.” She threw a black dress at me. “Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

“I hate it when you throw my words back in my face.”

Her mouth quirked up at the corner. “I know.”

Tizzy rushed into the room. “I love Lolo’s,” she said. “Hurry up and dress so we can go.”

I narrowed my gaze at my familiar. “You can’t come, Tiz. This is a work meeting.” A part of me hoped it was more, but Ford had said Officer Baylor, which seemed to scream work and not pleasure. “You stay here and catch up with Lily.”

“I’ve seen Officer Baylor, Haze. You need the backup,” she whined. “What if he decides to haul your butt to jail again?”

“He’s not going to take me to jail.” Really, I think Tiz just wanted to eavesdrop. I couldn’t blame her. I’d taken her out of a paranormal town to live in a human city, which meant she’d only had me to talk to for nearly two decades. Seeing how excited and alive she’d become since we’d returned to Paradise Falls made me feel like the most selfish witch on the planet.

She’d never once complained about being alone, so foolishly, I had believed she wasn’t lonely.

“Why don’t you invite Jackie over? Or go to her place.”

“She’s mated,” Tiz said, disappointment lowering her voice to an alto-soprano.

“I’m sorry.”

The squirrel brightened. “I think there’s a shifter shindig on Eden’s Road. I might head out there if you don’t mind.”

I raised a suspicious brow. I’d been to a couple parties out there during my teenage years. We used to call the area the “garden of delights.” Lots of booze. Lots of drugs. My head hurt just thinking about those Sunday-morning hangovers. “Those can get a little rough.”

“Puh-leeeeeeaze, Haze.” She clasped her tiny hands in front of her and batted her lashes. “I’m just so…sad…about Jackie. I think a party would do me some good.”

Lily, who’d been listening quietly, stepped in. “I’ll go with her.”

“You sure?”

“Yep,” she said, laughing as Tizzy climbed her leg and arm until she landed on Lily’s shoulder. “It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten out of this old house. It’ll do me good.”

“Okay,” I said. “Tiz, Lily’s in charge.”

“Haze!”

I narrowed my gaze.

She threw up her manicured paws. “Fine. Lily’s in charge.”