Page 24 of The Accidental Detectives

Wanda provided the answer. “She claims it happened in a raid at some big gala ball her family traditionally threw every year. They were warned vampires were on the loose, but her brother, a stubborn guy, refused to cave and call it off.”

“She was a widow at the time, and in that day and age, she became her brother’s responsibility. I guess they didn’t get along, and her dead husband left her destitute. Anyway, he wanted to marry her off. He thought the ball was a good way to find a suitor,” Marty added, with a wrinkle of her nose.

My disbelief was real. “He wanted to find her a husband at sixty-two?”

Wanda clucked her tongue. “Well, yes. Back in the day that’s how it was done, and if they didn’t get along, he’d want to foist her off on any takers available—especially at her advanced age. The dowry paid would be small, and she’d be out of his hair.”

Rolling up my sleeves, I shook my head. Heathens. All of ’em. “So where does being turned to a vamp fit in?”

“These vampires raided the ball and went on a rampage. Brenda’s entire family was killed, including her brother. But somehow she survived, and therefore inherited everything. She ran the company from that point on, until she sold it in the seventies. I have no clue how she kept her true identity hidden for all those years, though. I mean, surely someone noticed she didn’t age…”

Huh. I’m proud to be a vampire, but I’m not so proud of the ways of old. I like a good tussle as much as the next ragey bitch, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have survived a fucking era where vampires ran rampant and drained everyone in sight.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I asked, “So then there must be some record of a massacre like that, right? You know vampires love documenting every fucking thing. When we’re done here, we should dig deeper. Maybe it’s someone from her past who wants to frame her?”

Marty tapped the marble counter with her fingernail. “That’s a long time to hold a grudge, don’t you think?”

“Well, when you’re immortal, it gives you a lot of time to think. We weren’t turned in the dark ages of vamps. Shit was different for us. Hell, it’s even more different now than when we first opened OOPS. Maybe someone’s just been waitin’ around to mess with her. It’s a stretch, but not impossible.”

Wanda pointed to the living room. “Fair enough, but for now, we need to get moving. We’ll discuss that angle later when we get back to the castle.”

I jabbed a finger in the air. “I’ll take upstairs, you guys down here, agreed?”

They both nodded. “Agreed.”

I made my way through the living room to another staircase, wide and shiny, taking me up to an open room where there were tons of bookcases and one of those chairs-and-a-half.

And I only I know it’s called a chair-and-a-half because Marty spent three months hunting for the right one for her house. The information did me about as much good as an algebra class ever did. Sitting next to it, Brenda’s beloved needlepoint, half hanging out of a big wicker basket.

The hallway beyond was long and broad, with four bedrooms total. There were lots of pictures along the way, some I’m assuming of her family, due to the clothing they wore.

I decided to start with Brenda’s room first. Unsurprisingly, it was in the same condition as the rest of the house—all torn up.

Her silky comforter was half on, half off the bed, with more pillows thrown on the floor than on the mattress. Even the flowing curtains were crooked.

I put my gloves on, because I still don’t know if I have detectable DNA, and began sifting through her nightstand drawers. Nothing but a bunch of girly stuff like creams and moisturizers and spongey things I think were used for applying makeup.

I looked under her bed, felt around the floor just in case the cops had missed something small the way they did with her nail, but I was comin’ up dry.

Noting the walk-in closet the size of a small mobile home, I decided that was next on my list. Until I heard Marty call me from downstairs, her voice filled with her typical hectic energy.

“Nina! Get your gorgeous butt down here, vampire!”

I blew out of the closet and raced back down the stairs to find Marty and Wanda looking at a picture, holding it up with their gloved hands.

A picture thatsparkled.

What in the name of glitter?

“Where the hell did you find that?” I asked, pulling out my phone to take a picture. My nostrils flared as I did. I smelled…magic. I knew the scent because of one of our more recent OOPS cases with an accidental turning. Her name was Robbie, and she was a great kid who’d accidentally been turned into a witch.

In fact, she’d set my damn hair on fire with her out-of-control magic. I knew the smell well.

Marty held it up, squinting at the bright light it omitted. “It was taped under the mantel.”

“Tapedunderthe mantel? Who the fuck puts a picture under the mantel and what made you look there?”

Marty rolled her big baby blues at me. “I was looking to see what kind of wood it was. I mean, it’s gorgeous.”

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