“I’m sorry for your loss,” Ant said. He was already uncomfortable, aware there was tension between Viktor and Carmine, but he couldn’t tell what was going on. It was easier to simply repeat an automatic response - one that Bridget had told him repeatedly was the correct thing to say when somebody was talking about the death of a loved one. “I assume that the police have handled this case for you. Were they unable to find any leads?”
There weren’t many unsolved murders in town. The police were very diligent in what they did, and it was usually only in truly difficult cases that Ant was called in to help provide any extra details if he could. Even with his magic, finding criminals wasn’t necessarily easy, and Ant had learned to deal with the limitations of what his powers could do a long time ago.
Ant didn’t have any desire to work for a known criminal, either. However, he also had a strong sense of fairness. Simply because Carmine was a gangster, it didn’t mean Carmine’s sister wasn’t a victim. Ant couldn’t ignore her situation if she were.
“Wait for me in the car,” Carmine said to his bodyguards, waiting until they’d left before turning back to the table again. “I do not discuss this with anyone, not even my staff. They know about Carol’s death, obviously, but none of the details.” Letting out a long sigh, Carmine said, “My sister’s been dead ten years.”
All shades of the flirty, boisterous, friendly man-about-town persona were gone. Carmine sounded genuinely said, looking down at the table. “Ten years ago next month, Carol had gone out with friends, just like any night, but that particular night she didn’t come home. None of her friends were saying anything, and before you ask, yes, I did apply heavy pressure on them totell me something.” As Carmine looked up, Ant could see real menace in his eyes.
“No matter what I did, they couldn’t tell me anything. I made a missing person’s complaint to the police. I canvased all her friends. I had my men out searching for leads among every contact I had. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Three months later, I was informed they had found her body, just out of town.”
“That’s not a case I was aware of,” Ant said slowly. “But that’s not unusual. Who was the officer in charge of the case?”
Carmine glared at Viktor. “The same man your lapdog vampire killed.” His lip lifted in a sneer and Viktor flashed his fangs. “I demanded the police use a truth sayer, and all they could tell me was that Officer Mike Casey had nothing to do with her murder.”
Confused, Ant said, “There was no way Mike could’ve been implicated in a case ten years ago, let alone questioned about his part in it. He wouldn’t have been able to continue his work as an officer of the law if anyone had any doubts over his integrity back then.”
“He wasn’t questioned about the murder,” Carmine snapped. “I didn’t realize he was a serial killer back then. I wanted him investigated because he kept saying he’d followed every lead, when there weren’t any.”
That still didn’t make sense to Ant, but then he had only been a police consultant. He wasn’t actually part of the police force. “I can get in touch with the police and ask for a copy of the case notes,” he said cautiously.
“No! Following up with the police is a waste of time. I want you to talk to Mike. You can do that, can’t you? You can talk to him now that he’s dead. You talked to the Fallows guy, the one Tony murdered in cold blood. Now you can talk to fucking Mike. I know he was hiding something. I need to know what it was.”
Able started to growl, and Ant leaned back in his seat, putting as much distance between himself and Carmine as possible. The negativity and anger were coming off the man’s body in waves, although Ant was likely the only one impacted by it. “I still don’t understand. Why would I go to all the trouble of speaking to a dead man? Wouldn’t it have been easier for you to speak to him when he was alive?”
“Carmine’s lying,” Viktor said before Carmine had a chance to answer. “You might not be lying about your sister’s death, but you’re lying about the tie-in with Mike. You’re using our recent incidents as another way to convince Ant to work for you.
“I’ll wager a hundred dollars that you don’t believe Ant could find the information you’re looking for. But if he tries, and he can’t, then in your warped brain, Ant will owe you a favor. You would continue to pressure him so you can use him, probably to hide any more recent activities you’ve played a part in.
“You can stop the bull shit Carmine, because I know the type of man you are, and your little scheme is not going to work.”
The change in Carmine was instant. He sat back, his hands spread wide. “It’s you who is being the skeptic here, Viktor. My sister Carol is dead. She was murdered ten years ago. At least the police assumed she was because she didn’t land in Blumen Park all by herself, covered in debris and garbage bags. Officer Mike Casey was one of the policemen who worked on that case. I’m not lying about any of that.”
“But you think you have set my mate up with an impossible task.” Ant could feel Viktor looking at him. “Are you capable of reading a scene that old?”
Ant nodded. “I can read pretty much anything if I’m directed to the right place. It’s whether or not I want to.”
“An innocent girl is dead.” Carmine’s eyes flashed. “She might not have meant anything to you, but she meant the world to me. Regardless of what you think about my lifestyle, she was still a decent person, and her killer has never been brought to justice.”
“Then why haven’t you spoken to me about this before?” Ant asked. The swirl of energies around Carmine was giving him a headache. “I’ve been in business a long time. You could have put in a request with my office for me to read the scene back when the body was found.”
Carmine looked away and then back at Ant. “I didn’t think your powers worked,” Carmine said simply. “I thought anything that came out of the Mage Academy was pure bullshit, to use Viktor’s words. But I do have contacts, and I heard what happened to Tony. Let’s just say, that made me a believer. Seriously, did you infect him with a ghost?”
Ant sighed. “No, I didn’t. The Fallows’ spirit did that all by himself. The issue I have with your request is that if your sister wasn’t murdered where her body was found, then there won’t be anything for me to see except a body dump episode.
“Her spirit, if it lingered, would be where she was killed, or at a place that is significant to her. Although the chances of her spirit even being on this plane after ten years are very slim. I can try. I can read the scene, but I can only report on what I see – how much or how little that might be. There are no guarantees in my line of business.”
“I don’t expect you to perform miracles.” Carmine’s grin was definitely fake. “I just want to know who killed my sister. Surely you can understand that. If anything were to happen to your sister…”
Viktor slapped his hand down on the table. “That right there is why we’re not working with you,” he said, pointing his finger inCarmine’s direction. “You had no reason to bring up Bridget in this conversation and yet you did. You do not get to threaten his sister, no matter how obliquely. You had your chance with Bridget. If you had been honest with her at the start, who knows? She might have continued dating you, or she might not have, because she’s a decent person who lives on the right side of the law. One thing you can take to the fucking bank, though, is that neither my mate nor his sister can abide liars, whereas you’re someone who thrives on them, don’t you, Carmine?”
Carmine threw a look that Ant couldn’t decipher. “Does your mate know about you and the lovely Jessie?”
“I’ve heard enough,” Ant said, pushing away from the table and standing up. “Send any details that you have about your sister’s case to my office. I’ll have a look at it. If I think there’s anything there worth investigating further, I’ll send you an invoice. Once it’s paid, I’ll read the scene where the body was found. Talking to Mike is a complete waste of time, and I won’t do that. I’ll do a scene reading, if I’m paid for it, and if I think it might help. That’s all I can commit to at this point.”
“You want payment in advance?” Carmine’s eyebrows were raised, and Viktor hid a chuckle. He’d never heard of anyone demanding money from the gangster or not trusting his word they’d get paid.
“It’s astute business sense,” Ant said. “At least that’s what my sister tells me. There’s no point in pushing someone for payment if they’ve already received the information they were meant to pay me to get for them. Payment is made up front. Even lawyers who ask for my expert testimony pay in advance, with no guarantee of what information I might provide in court.”
