Page 81 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

How could Elsa Wintersteen have resisted the cursed gem’s dark promises? And then it hit me like a lightning bolt: she hadn’t. Aoife’s murder wasn’t really about the barrier; she’d been a casualty of a witch trying to do the cursed stone’s bidding – and the stones wanted to be brought together. We’d been led astray by the protests and Aoife’s death but now it was crystal clear…

‘I know who is stealing the stones,’ I declared grimly. ‘And she won’t stop until she has them all.’

Chapter 51

As we left Vogler’s house, I turned to Connor. ‘Can you amend that warrant? This is about the gems, not the barrier, and my newest suspect is the wind witch, Elsa Wintersteen. She’s watched over her stone for seventeen years. That’s a long time to silence the stone’s whispering.’

He nodded. ‘I’ll get it done.’

‘How long will it take?’

‘I need to go back and type up the new form, and I’ll need your paperwork too. Might as well do this right from the start. We don’t want her lawyer setting her free on a technicality.’

‘Amen. I’m going to the office now. I’ll send you the paperwork.’ I looked at Liv. ‘Will you co-sign the warrant?’

‘Obviously,’ she drawled. ‘I’ll go with Mackenzie.’ She ran a hand up Connor’s arm, toyed with his bicep then sashayed to his car. When she looked back at me, her eyes were dancing with dark mischief. She was looking for a reaction, so I gave her none. She must have realised Connor was in yesterday’s clothes.

Since it wasn’t a secret and I wasn’t ashamed of our entanglement, I stood on my tiptoes and brushed my lips against Connor’s. ‘See you later.’ Okay: maybe Liv had gotten a little reaction out of me. I didn’t glance back at her as I walked to the Nomo’s SUV but I heard her throaty chuckle. Wonderful: now I was amusing her, which was not exactly what I’d been going for.

I was starting to hate paperwork as much as Gunnar, especially when I was excited about ending a case. We were so close to finishing this, I could almost taste it. Soon we’d have the barrier back at full strength and I could start to sleep easy again. Despite my impatience to arrest Wintersteen, I painstakingly typed the documentation, got Gunnar to sign it off and emailed it to Connor.

‘How’s Sidnee?’ I asked Gunnar as we waited for the warrant to come through. ‘I haven’t heard from her, but I don’t want to bother her.’

‘You won’t be a bother. She’s okay. She’s been discharged home.’

‘She’s not home alone?’ I half-rose from my desk.

‘Relax.’ Gunnar smiled. ‘She’s at ours. Sig and Loki are fussing over her.’

I sank back down. ‘Phew. I’m almost jealous of all the good food she’s having.’

Gunnar patted his sizeable gut. ‘Me too.’

My smile faded. ‘This gem mess is my fault. I interviewed Elsa and I missed that she was gaga. And her husband,’ I said slowly, as more dots connected, ‘he’s the one that gave the tip to Snow and tempted him to abandon his post for the bookies and some booze. The Wintersteens planned the fire to cover up their “theft” of the gem and to make them look innocent. We never even looked at Elsa as a suspect – we thought she was a victim. Man, I fucked this up.’

Gunnar gave me a firm look. ‘You can’t beat yourself up. Our job is a hard one and virtually every person we speak to is lying to us. What we have to work out is why and if we need to dig into it or not.’

‘That’s a depressing point of view,’ I mumbled.

‘I’m not saying everyone lies, but the criminal element does and those are the people that we mostly speak to. They have a vested interest in convincing us that they’re innocent. Learn to read between the lines.’

I sighed. ‘I thought I was pretty good at that.’

‘You are, but practice makes perfect. Like anything, it’s a skill you’ll hone with time.’

‘Time is something I have plenty of,’ I joked. Immortality had its upsides.

While we waited for Connor to text that the warrant was ready, Gunnar returned to his office and I looked up the address for Elsa’s new home.

She had been so nervous when I’d interviewed her. I’d thought that she was a wreck because of the fire, but maybe her supposed timidness was something else. Maybe she’d been jittery and nervous because she was guilty. How had I missed it?

Elsa was most likely under the influence of one – probably two – powerful, possessed stones. I wondered who or what possessed them. Liv had mentioned angels and demons – were the stones demonic? I hoped not but I called her to make sure. If they were, I was tempted to take a holiday until this whole mess was resolved.

Liv answered with her usual irascibility. ‘What now, Bunny? I’m at the council chambers, I’ll sign the damn papers.’

‘It’s not about the papers. Your story about the stones… You said something about them being possessed. Are they possessed by demons?’

‘Don’t be ridiculous! Demons like to possess the living. No, they found the most powerful non-corporeal beings on earth. They are possessed by the strongest of the banshees.’

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