Page 6 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

Gunnar approached the fire chief. ‘Let me know what you find about the cause of the fire.’

The chief nodded amiably. ‘I’ll copy you in on my report, though I’m going to say that this fire is too hot to be natural. It was started by magical means.’

In my head I pictured the poison witch, Shirley, and her fireballs. And me with mine.

‘Appreciate that.’ Gunnar turned to me. ‘Since they don’t need us here, let’s head back to the other situation.’ He was clearly choosing his words carefully in front of the fire chief; he didn’t want to start mass panic about the jewel theft.

When we climbed into the Nomo vehicle, Fluffy whined a little and gave me a glare. ‘Sorry we left you, bud,’ I told him. ‘No one lived there, so it’s okay.’ He gave a sharp bark and a doggy grin. I was forgiven. Dogs are the best.

We drove back to the break-in and this time we actually made it into the log house. Progress. One step forward: here’s hoping it wasn’t followed by two steps back.

Chapter 4

Connor opened the door and paused for a second, sweeping me over for signs of injury or distress. Finding none, he turned back to business. ‘What was the explosion?’

‘A house a couple of blocks over. No one was in it,’ Gunnar confirmed.

‘Well, that’s something at least.’ Connor stepped back and let us in.

‘You okay?’ I asked softly.

His jaw was tight with tension. ‘I’ve been better,’ he murmured, letting Gunnar take point ahead of us so we could talk privately. ‘The fire gem has been stolen on my watch. It’s not a good look.’

I reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘We’ll get it back.’

He flashed me a grim smile. ‘Damn right we will.’ He didn’t say that heads would roll, but that was definitely the vibe I was getting. The perpetrator better hope we found them before Connor did.

‘What happened?’ I asked.

‘The fire elemental witch lost the damned stone.’ Connor couldn’t keep the anger and frustration out of his voice. Maybe he wasn’t even trying to.

‘They lost it?’

‘It got taken,’ Connor conceded. ‘Supposedly. I’ll let you make up your own mind. Come and meet Kos.’ It was clear that he knew the witch well, and I tried to suppress a twinge of jealousy.

‘Is the witch unharmed?’ I asked as he showed me into a room where a man was sitting. Huh, the witch was a dude. For some reason the label ‘witch’ still made me think female, even though I knew men could be witches. Popular culture has a lot to answer for.

Kos looked downright miserable. He was dressed in a conservative light-blue, button-down shirt with a red bow tie; the shirt was tucked neatly into a pair of navy-blue corduroy trousers with red suspenders. His dark hair was slicked back and he was wearing trendy, red-framed glasses. He looked like he was everyone’s favourite schoolteacher.

Next to him was Connor’s new second, Lee Margrave, who’d taken the job after Juan Torres had been killed. Margrave looked like a tough guy: the scar down his face gave that impression even without his bulk, and with his huge muscles he looked like someone to avoid. Next to the neatly presented witch, he looked downright evil. If he were in a Disney film, his background colour would have been green.

Kos was staring into space. His eyes refocused, then he looked at Gunnar wide-eyed and panicked. ‘It’s gone.’ He started wringing his hands. He seemed surprised, as though he’d discovered it this instant and couldn’t quite believe it. I recognised his voice: this was the man who’d called the theft into the office.

Gunnar looked at me and jerked his head towards Kos; apparently this was my show. Fuck: I didn’t want this to be my show – I needed to start with some smaller shows like Punch and Judy. That was more my level.

I’d enjoyed leading the investigation when Gunnar was in hospital and relished the challenge, but this was the gemstone that could lead to the whole barrier falling. This shit wasn’t for amateurs, but evidently Gunnar had decided I wasn’t one. I appreciated the vote of confidence even though he was totally wrong.

‘Right.’ I cleared my throat. ‘I’m Officer Bunny Barrington.’

‘Bunny?’ The witch looked down his nose at me. ‘How did you get a name like that?’

‘At my birth, a seer gave a prophecy about my life,’ I lied. ‘My mum was so high on gas and air that she couldn’t remember anything other than the word “Bunny”.’ I gave a light shrug. ‘And what’s your name?’

The witch looked at Gunnar with irritation, but when my boss glared a little he turned back to me. ‘Kostas Spencer.’

‘Can you tell me what happened, Kostas?’

He looked at me and then at Gunnar again. Gunnar was standing slightly behind me with his arms crossed. He gave a firm head tilt towards me.

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