Page 13 of Deadly Avarice
I shrugged. While Boone had been involved in a lot of homicide investigations, that didn’t equate to knowing police procedures. “I never delete or throw anything away. You just never know when it might be useful in the future.” Sometimes, things got thrown away or lost by mistake, but I wouldn’t knowingly do such a thing.
Easing away from me, Boone stared down at the names. There weren’t that many and they were only of human mothers in Mississippi and the surrounding states. They also went back further than Boone currently wanted and I said as much. “Some of the names on here are going to be human mothers from more than thirty years ago. I don’t really have a way of figuring that out simply by the list alone. I can start looking the names up and find their age and cross-reference that with birth certificates of the same last name.” It would be time consuming, but some of the legwork was already done. That’s how I’d found McCallister. I’d thankfully figured out his possible involvement early on and hadn’t needed to go through the entire list. It looked like I would now.
Boone nodded vigorously. “I know, and I know you’re busy with cases so I don’t expect miracles or anything like that. It’ll be a slow process unless…” Boone sucked on his bottom lip, chewing mercilessly at it.
Placing a finger on his lip, I gave a gentle tug. “Hey now, none of that. What’s worrying you?” It was one of Boone’s tells.
“I may have done something stupid,” Boone confessed. “I’m not sure yet. I gave it a lot of thought. Aurelia even told me I was becoming increasingly boring.”
“Aurelia stopped by?” That sounded like she drove a car to Boone’s house or knocked on the door while she was out walking around the neighborhood.
Boone nodded, not taking his eyes from the list. “Yeah. Momma too.” His head snapped up and his eyes widened. “You will not believe what Peaches got Aurelia this time.”
Now my eyes widened. “Another cat?”
Boone shook his head, his hair flopping back and forth. “Nope. A hamster.”
“Ahamster?What the hell for?”
“According to Aurelia, Peaches thinks she’s mourning the loss of Little Fang and needed another pet. Get this, she’s carrying it around in the same backpack with the plastic bubble. It’s full of wood shavings. She even has one of those clear balls to put it in so it can run around.”
“Christ, what was Peaches thinking?”
“I’m not sure.” Boone chuckled. “Aurelia keeps calling it a ‘useless creature.’”
I rubbed the stubble on my chin. “I’m not entirely sure she’s wrong. I mean, I know people like them and all, but…” I couldn’t see how this would be a good pet for a djinn. “They’ve got a really short life span. I think it’s a long shot that Aurelia will get attached to the little guy, but if she does, then it won’t last long.” Even with the best care, hamsters simply didn’t live that long compared to other animals humans kept as pets.
“Aurelia didn’t say anything about that. She’s still mooning for a scuttlebutt.”
I’d never heard of such a thing until Aurelia brought it up, and according to Boone, that would be a terrible idea. Since I trusted Boone’s opinion implicitly, I agreed. “Are you going to talk to Peaches about that?”
Boone appeared thoughtful before shaking his head. “I think King Moony would be better.”
Boone’s eclectic list offriendsnever failed to amaze me, or the ease with which he spoke of contacting the Southeast vampire king. I’d met the Midwest vampire queen and didn’t care for a repeat performance. While I understood King Moony was supposed to be very different than Queen Millicent, he was still an ancient, very powerful vamp.
“Anyway, Aurelia stopped by and then Momma came over. When Aurelia showed up, I was staring at my phone, debating on whether or not to call Tenzen Huxley.”
My muscles went rigid and my mind immediately went on alert. “You called Director Huxley?”
“I did.” Boone’s fingers toyed with the edge of the paper. “Do you think I shouldn’t have?” He turned his beautiful green, pleading eyes my direction. That gaze was so full of indecision and doubt. “I’m not even sure if he can do anything or not. Tenzen said he’ll speak with the Warlock Council, or at least he said he might have some personal influence. I honestly don’t know what that means.”
I didn’t either. Knowing Huxley thought he could possibly influence the Warlock Council should have given me relief. It didn’t. All I had to go on was Boone’s original reaction to Huxley’s first call. Huxley gave Boone pause, and in so doing, he gave me pause too. Like I said earlier, I trusted Boone. I also trusted Boone’s gut. I trusted his father’s gut too and if Warlock Holland was leery of Huxley, then I took notice.
Flopping back on the couch, Boone stared at the ceiling. “I shouldn’t have called.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“No, but you didn’t tell me I did the right thing either.”
That was true. “That’s because I don’t know what therightthing is. Listen, I don’t know this Huxley guy at all. He’s the Director of the Magical Usage Council. That has to mean something positive. Doesn’t it?” Honestly, I had no idea. As alowlyhuman, I didn’t have much contact with them. “I can always ask Captain Cicely what she thinks.” While witches had their own council, she seemed to know something of the Magical Usage one. It’s who she contacted during the shredded soul case. We hadn’t gotten any help from that quarter. Captain Cicely had been informed they were short-staffed and since Captain Cicely was, in fact, a witch herself, they thought her more than capable of handling the situation. Given the scope of the murders and the even bigger plans Dr. Morgan McCallister had, I think the council was a little shortsighted.
Boone’s head rolled my way, his eyes narrowed and the quirked lift of his lips indicated he thought I was full of bullshit. Boone probably wasn’t wrong.
Joining Boone’s lounging position, I leaned back so our shoulders were touching. “So, what are you thinking now?”
“So many things,” Boone groaned. “My mind’s all twisted up in knots. I… Something needs to be done and I was out of options, or maybe ideas. Calling Tenzen for help wasn’t first on my list, but—”
“The list of options is woefully brief.”
