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“Yep,” I replied. “And it’s starting to piss me right the fuck off, too.”
She gave me a sympathetic grimace. “Isn’t there some way a demon can ... I dunno, track it down or something so that you can find who’s making it?”
“I have absolutely no idea if that’s possible, but it’s a hypothetical exercise at this point anyway, because I don’t have enough power to do a summoning right now.” And even if I did, I’d be using it to call Rhyzkahl so that I could tell him about the summoning attempts. But Jill didn’t need to know about any of that. “Right now I’m forced to do my investigation using only mundane tactics.” I gave a mock shudder and she laughed.
“Oh my god, the horror!” She cast a sideways glance at me. “Seriously, though, is anything popping?”
“Too much, if that makes sense.” I made a sour face. “A bunch of strange little details and links, and I’m not sure what fits together or how. Plus, there’s stuff that looks intriguing to me but might have absolutely nothing to do with why anyone was killed and is only managing to distract me.”
To my surprise she wrapped an arm around me and gave me a companionable squeeze as we walked. “You’ll figure it out,” she reassured me. “You’re too much of a bitch not to.”
I jabbed my elbow lightly into her ribs. “Takes one to know one!”
She laughed then lifted her chin toward my car. “Who’s that?”
I looked to see that Knight was leaning against the hood of my car, arms folded casually across his chest. “Oh, that’s right, you haven’t met him yet. He’s part of the task force when we do New Orleans stuff.” And he freaks Pellini right out, which earns him extra points in my book, I thought, masking a grin. By this time we were close to the car. “Jill this is Marco Knight. Marco, this is Jill Faciane, our crime scene goddess.” I glanced at Marco. “Jill, um, knows.”
Jill snorted. “Yeah, I know that you’re totally weird,” she said to me, then she stuck her hand out to Knight. “Nice to meet you. I take it you’re weird too?”
A lazy grin crossed his face. “Quite so,” he said, taking her hand. To my surprise his grin abruptly slipped, an expression of shock and sadness flickering there before he released her hand and smiled normally again. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he said quietly.
Jill merely nodded, brow faintly furrowed, then she turned to me. “I’ll be right back. I want to put my camera away and check the pictures.”
“Sure thing,” I said, then watched after her as she strode to her van at a brisk clip. I gave Knight a questioning look but his gaze was on her as well. After a few seconds he gave a soft sigh then looked back to me.
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said, giving me his usual lazy amused grin. I smiled back, but I’d seen that brief flash of ... what had it been? Pain? Longing? Grief? It had been too quick to identify, but I knew the lazy grin to be a mask now.
But I felt no driving need to tear it away. I murmured something inconsequential and then moved off a short distance and pulled my cell phone out. I needed to let Ryan know what was going on ...
I stared down at the phone, hesitating before dialing Ryan’s number. I’d managed to forget the shock of last night for a while, but now it all came rushing back in. Zack’s not human. And Ryan can summon. Though Zack hadn’t said that Ryan was a summoner, merely that he had the ability to open portals. But if Ryan had never summoned before, what on earth could a human do to be labeled a kiraknikahl? Zack had said that his punishment was dire and just. And part of that punishment had to have been something that changed his memory or took it away. But Ryan can do that, I reminded myself. I’ve seen him change people’s memories. Did he do something to a demon or a summoner? Maybe that was why—
I jumped and bit back a yelp at the touch on my arm. I whirled to see Marco standing beside me, a questioning look on his face. “Does it do tricks?” he asked.
I gave him my best stupid look in response. “Huh?”
His lips twitched with a whisper of amusement. “You’ve been staring at your phone for several minutes now. Figured you were waiting for it to do something.”
I flushed and shook my head. “Sorry. Got lost in thought there.”
He flicked a glance to where the coroner’s office van was pulling up, directed to the ditch by Gordon. “Understandable. You got a lot to think about.” He met my eyes. “You’re caught right smack in the middle of some powerful forces.”
I controlled the shiver that wanted to slide down my spine. “Pellini told me to watch out for you,” I said before I could think about it. “Said you know shit,” I lowered my voice in quasi-imitation of Pellini, “and that you fuck people up ... telling them things.”
The smile faded from his face and he looked away, into the distance. “I made some mistakes. Hurt people who didn’t deserve the hurting they ended up with.”>In response he flipped to the next page in his little notebook and pulled a sheet out and handed it to me. On it was everything I could ever want to know about the witness and how to contact her, including home phone, cell phone, work phone, email, place of employment, and her work hours.
“I have no words,” I stated. Holy shit, but I wanted a dozen more like him on the road.
I tucked the page into my notebook, then turned back to the ditch, taking in what I could of the scene. The bank of the ditch had numerous boot marks and shoe impressions, many of them probably from EMS when they’d run an EKG strip to confirm death. But I wasn’t looking for footprints. Even without shifting into othersight the distinctive resonance hummed through me. The golem had done this.
“Has this been photographed?” I asked.
“Gordon here took pics,” Scott said with a nod toward the other officer. “I called out the lab, but I figured we should get some pics before everyone and their brother got to traipsing around down there.”
“And that’s why you’re the best,” I said fervently.
He snorted. “Words mean nothing to me. Buy me a beer later.”
