Page 8 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

‘Do you know where it is?’

He shook his head. ‘I’ve never been, though I know it exists.’

I made a note to ask Gunnar about it later. Still, a potion being difficult to acquire didn’t rule it out; difficult wasn’t impossible. ‘Can anyone else drop or replace the wards?’ I asked.

‘No. I’d know. The wards I lowered were mine, and nothing or no one had touched them.’

Well, wasn’t that a head scratcher?

‘How often do you reset them?’ Gunnar probed.

‘Every few weeks.’

‘When did you last do it?’ I asked.

‘This morning,’ he admitted.

I gave him a flat look; that was clearly relevant yet he hadn’t volunteered the information. Somehow someone had slipped in between the time he’d lowered and reset the wards: a quick theft but not an impossible one. And that still didn’t tell us why Fluffy couldn’t scent the intruder. Still, it was a starting point.

‘Who knows your warding routine?’ I demanded.

He gave a one-shouldered shrug. ‘No one, but I suppose someone could make an educated guess when I bought the various ingredients for a warding as powerful as this.’

‘Does anyone have a key to this place?’

He drew himself up prissily. ‘Obviously not. I take my role as the gem guardian very seriously.’

Not seriously enough. The uncharitable thought slipped out and I knew it was unfair. He’d warded the place to high heaven. What else could he have done besides live in a secret underground bunker?

‘The wards,’ I started. ‘Did you have to kill something to power them?’ Maybe someone was mad at him for killing their pet chicken called Clive. Maybe this was all some sort of petty retribution rather than a sinister plot to bring down the barrier and doom us all. Yeah, right.

He gave me a look of abject horror mixed with affront. ‘I’m a witch, not a necromancer!’

Having mortally offended him, I turned my attention back to the plinth but saw nothing that could be considered a clue. Gunnar dusted it and the closet doorknob for prints while I rolled the carpet around the podium with a tape roller to see if there were any stray hairs. I covered the roller with plastic wrap and tucked it in a bag to check when we got back to the office.

‘Can you describe the box and the gem?’ I asked Kostas.

‘It’s metal, about this big.’ He indicated a foot square with his hands. ‘The fire gem is a brilliant-cut ruby about the size of my fist.’

My eyes flew wide open; not only was the stone part of our barrier protection system, it was also extremely valuable. The motivation for the theft might have nothing to do with the barrier.

Gunnar took fingerprints on both front and rear doors, neither of which showed signs of forced entry. Either our suspect was a ghost or they’d unlocked doors with magic – which was entirely possible in this town. My boss was an expert at that particular trick, and I doubted he was the only one.

We left with a few prints, some forensics from the carpet and a lot of questions. How the heck had the thief got in? And what was their motivation for stealing the huge ruby? Was someone focused on a big payday or the wanton destruction of us all?

I prayed that it was the former.

Chapter 5

Whilst we worked the scene, Connor had kept a respectful distance and forced Margrave to do the same. When we were done, he followed us out to the Nomo vehicle. ‘Any thoughts?’ Gunnar asked him.

Connor ran his fingers through his unruly hair. ‘No signs of forced entry. I’m leaning towards the idea it was someone Kos knew. They got a key somehow, knew about the wards being redone. I keep coming back to those protesters. They want the barrier down and stealing one of the gems that powers it is a sure-fire way to do it.’

The protestors were upset because it cost them money to pay the magic users who kept the barrier powered up and working properly. Several members of the community thought it was exploitative; they believed the Portlock monster was a myth or a superstition, that if it had once existed it no longer did. The barrier was just a good earner for the magic users.

They were totally wrong. Gunnar, Thomas and I had gone through the barrier looking for two missing hunters, and though we’d found them they hadn’t come back alive. The beast beyond the barrier had seen to that. I still had nightmares about thick, cloying, black smoke pouring through the tear...

A chill ran down my spine at the thought of the barrier failing. We needed to find the gem, and we needed to make sure none of the other gems were stolen. ‘Can you make sure the remaining gemstones are heavily guarded?’ I asked Connor.

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