Page 57 of Half Dead

“Well, I’m glad we’re all on the same page for once.”

“Except Lucifer claims he didn’t kill her,” I added.

“I think we can safely assume every word out of Lucifer’s mouth is a lie,” West said.

“Very sensible,” I agreed.

West observed me closely. “I hear a ‘but’ buried in there.”

“But nothing. The pieces don’t fit as neatly as I’d like, that’s all. Birdie had already given me the cufflink. Why bother to kill her?”

“Maybe he believed it was still in her possession,” Chief Garcia said. “It’s possible he came looking for the evidence, couldn’t find it, and killed her anyway, then decided to make his presence known sooner rather than later in case Birdie had alerted someone.”

“Or this could be unrelated to Lucifer,” Phaedra said. “An unfortunate coincidence.”

“My money’s on Lucifer,” the chief said. “And my salary ispublic knowledge, so you know I don’t have a lot to gamble with.”

“So we’ve got a killer demon in our midst,” West said. “The question is—what are we going to do about it?”

“Kane and I are dealing with it.”

“How?” the chief asked.

“We invited Lucifer to dinner at the Castle.”

Everybody stared at me in stunned silence.

West looked at the chief. “Do you want to field this one or should I?”

Chief Garcia gave my arm a solid punch. “Are you out of your mind?”

I rubbed my arm. “He’s up to something and we want to figure out what it is.” After my conversation with the mages, I’d spilled the beans to Kane. He agreed that Camryn’s advice was sound, and together we decided to forgo the One Oak idea. Lucifer would’ve won anyway, and I would’ve endangered the patrons in the process. Instead, I sent a message to Lucifer’s B & B and explained that Kane agreed to meet with him and hear him out.

“He’s here for Sullivan,” West said. “What is there to figure out?”

“Then why not just take him before anyone was the wiser?” I shook my head. “There’s more to it. Kane and I are certain of it.”

West gave me an appraising look. “You don’t have to do this alone. Let us help. We’ll wait outside the Castle in case you need backup.”

“Lucifer will know,” I said. “We don’t want to endanger anybody else.”

“Let’s say your plan works and you discover his true intentions,” the chief said. “Then what?”

“It depends on what those intentions are.”

“There’s one problem,” West said. “This is Fairhaven. When has anything gone according to plan?”

I huffed. “Now you sound like Gunther.”

“West is right,” the chief said. “Plans are like snakes around here.”

Anna scrunched her nose. “Snakes?”

Leo leaned over to her and said, “They go sideways.”

“Oh, got it.”

“Look on the bright side.” I flashed them a hopeful smile. “There’s a first time for everything, right?”

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