Page 78 of Bright Dark Curses

“Maybe.” Sonia kept a few blood tests in her car, but who else might have? Maybe Hutton? But Hutton would probably not help until I told him what was happening, and I didn’t want to get Brett, Key, and Shane into shifter trouble.

My phone vibrated with an incoming call, and I checked it to see it was Dru.

“It’s Dru,” I told Key before answering. “Yes?”

“We have a problem with one of our suspects,” Dru said quietly.

“What happened?”

“Lydia Lee is dead.”

I gasped.

Key leaned in. “What is it?”

“Lydia Lee is dead,” I repeated.

Key gasped. “Dead? How?”

“Dead? How?” I parroted into the phone.

“Someone found her unresponsive in her trailer.”

“Are the police there?”

“No, the paramedics were just here. They say it looks like a massive heart attack.”

“Heart attack,” I repeated for Key.

The question was, natural or magic-induced?

“Do you think it’s related to the sabotage?” I asked. “Did you check for magic?”

“Not yet. Ethan is losing his mind. He keeps swearing he didn’t do it.”

“Do you think he did?”

“I didn’t do it,” claimed Ethan’s distant voice. “I swear!”

“He’s been around us most of the evening,” Dru said in irritation. “We’ll check for magic after things have calmed down.”

I relayed the information to Key, then said, “Let me know as soon as you know something.”

“I will.”

I returned the phone to my pocket.

“What do we do now?” Key whispered.

“I…” My brain seemed to be working in slow motion as it digested the news.

“If it were me,” Bagley said dryly, “I wouldn’t want to stand around in a dead person’s room.”

Key and I stared at each other in horror. Then I shoved the bottles back into the drawer, and we both bolted for the door, barely managing not to bump into each other and get stuck in the doorway.

“My good deed here is done,” was the last thing Bagley said before I shoved her under my jacket.

We slipped outside and didn’t stop until we were a couple of blocks away.

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