Page 26 of The Vampire and the Case of the Baleful Banshee

We looked at each other but none of us had any ideas. Another mystery. My simple theft case, which should have been so simple to solve, had rolled into murder – and this murder didn’t have an easy solution.

I let out a big breath and walked back to the SUV. Time to inform Nora Sullivan that her only child had been murdered.

Chapter 15

Nora opened the door with a frown. ‘What? Do you need to search the house again?’ she demanded.

I shook my head. ‘Would you mind if I came in?’

‘Yes, I would,’ she huffed.

Great: the porch it was, then. ‘I’m sorry, but we’ve found your daughter Aoife.’ I took a breath. ‘She’s dead.’ Damn, I’d forgotten the whole ‘I regret to inform you’ bit again. I sucked at this.

‘What?’ She staggered and I reached out to steady her but she slapped my hand away. ‘No, that’s impossible. There is already a Sullivan banshee. She must be lost.’ Then she let out a wail that didn’t have anywhere near her daughter’s bite.

‘Um, we did actually see Aoife afterwards. Her spirit?’

Nora froze. ‘You did?’ Hope washed over her as I nodded. ‘Oh, thank the Goddess.’ She leaned heavily against the doorframe, breathing deeply.

‘What does it mean seeing Aoife like that?’

Her gaze sharpened. ‘Now isn’t the time for questions, is it?’ She slammed the door in my face.

I grimaced: she wasn’t wrong. I’d made a mess of delivering the news, but something else was clearly going on with Aoife. Had her spirit stayed around because she’d been murdered? Nora had talked about a ‘Sullivan banshee’. What did that mean? I hated being ignorant but it was hard to be otherwise when the supernats clung to their secrecy like a stripper to a pole.

Sidnee was watching from the car. Terrific: it was always best to humiliate yourself with witnesses. As I climbed back into the driver’s side, she touched my arm. ‘Sorry, Bunny. That looked rough.’

‘Yeah, she was angry. At least, that’s how she came across.’

‘I’m sure she’s in shock. Grief comes differently to people, but anger is one of the stages we all go through at some point.’

I slid her a sideways glance. She seemed to know all about grief but I didn’t know how. I cleared my throat. ‘I know we’ll have to formally question Nora, but let’s give her a minute to get her head around it.’ Murders were rarely random; most often it was a family member or a spouse.

Sidnee clearly had the same thought. ‘Should we go round up the boyfriend?’

I shook my head. ‘Let’s do the paperwork and call him in tomorrow. He only recently lost his dad so I can’t imagine what kind of trauma he’ll go through once he finds out about Aoife. Let’s give him one more night’s sleep. We’ve informed next of kin, that’s enough for now.’

We were both quiet on the drive back to the office. As we turned the last corner, the fire trucks passed us with their sirens blazing. We looked grimly at each other. Had the fire gem struck again?

Sidnee nodded towards the fire engine and I turned the SUV to follow it. I prayed another empty house awaited us.

Gunnar must have got the call whilst we were notifying Nora Sullivan because he and Fluffy were already at the site. We parked up and piled out. ‘What’s on fire?’ I asked breathlessly.

‘It’s bad,’ he said ominously.

That sent a chill down my spine. Gunnar was Mr Glass Half-Full, casual to the point of flippancy most of the time. For him to say something was bad it had to be virtually apocalyptic. Crap: I’d scared myself.

‘What is it?’ Sidnee asked.

‘The house that’s burning holds the wind gem.’

‘Fuck,’ I cursed. My blood ran cold and Sidnee looked like she’d been punched in the stomach.

‘Indeed,’ Gunnar agreed. ‘I hope you don’t mind that I brought Fluffy with me.’

‘No, that’s fine.’ My boy was wearing his K-9 vest and wagging his tail, thrilled to be out and about.

‘Shadow?’ I asked.

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