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“By the looks of it, the person has been long dead.” Max pulled a pen from his pocket and poked at the femur. “The bones aren’t brittle, so I suspect it’s less than forty years old.”
How odd was it to have that bit of knowledge in your mind? I was perfectly content that I didn’t know such information. Although, it did make me slightly happy that Wayde had been so stupid to leave a murder victim behind.
Even if we couldn’t pin Alexander’s death on him, this one we could. I turned to Zach, even though I’d rather talk to Kipp about this new development. “His secret, I’m guessing?”
Zach hesitated, his brows drawn together. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re not sure?” I pointed into the trunk with bones in it. “There’s a skeleton, in his house, which he clearly put there. How can you not be sure? I’d say that’s a secret I’d want to keep hidden.”
Before Zach could reply, Max interjected, “I think Zach’s onto something. If Wayde—and yes, I’m going to call him that to make this easier—was so concerned about keeping this secret, why wouldn’t he destroy the body?”
“Magic,” Gretchen offered.
I turned to her and found Gretchen by one of the dark corners in the basement. I tried not to focus on that, as she continued with a frown. “Perhaps he needed to keep the skeleton to hold onto a spell he conjured.” She paused, and then shrugged. “It’s just a thought.”
More than pleased to look away from the dark corner behind her, I glanced at Dane. “You agree with that?”
He tilted his head, and his eyes became focused. “Honestly, I don’t know. It’s possible.” He looked to Amelia next to him before he finally said, “Or maybe he wanted to keep the body close to him for other reasons.”
I snorted. “Yeah, like crazy-ass-murderer reasons we couldn’t possibly begin to understand.”
Every head nodded.
Silence crept in as I rubbed my arms to warm the chill out of my veins, and Kipp brushed a finger over my forearm, only adding to my freezing cold state. “Fuck, I hate this.”
I turned to him, and his expression was twisted. “You shouldn’t have to deal with this shit. You never signed up for this.” He trailed a finger over my cheek. “I did.”
While I wouldn’t refute that statement, since I’d never had dreams of becoming a detective and dealing with murders, I had my gifts. That surrounded me with death. In truth, I had no response. We both knew if I hadn’t met Kipp, I’d still be working with Caley at the marketing firm, and I’d probably be a helluva lot safer.
Did I like this part of my life? Not one stinkin’ bit. But I had to take the good
with the bad, even if that included skeletons.
I became lost in Kipp’s tormented gaze, totally stuck on how to reassure him, until Max finally broke the silence. “Would that happen to be the book you’re looking for?”
Max was pointing into the trunk and I used my flashlight to get a better look. Once I peered into the trunk, I noticed that tucked along the side of the trunk was a book with a brown leather cover. To Dane, I asked, “Is that the Lux?”
Dane settled in next to me and he gazed down into the trunk for only a moment before his head snapped up. “That’d be it.”
My heart skipped a beat and I reached forward, but Max’s firm grip on my forearm stopped me. “Before you touch it, put these on.” He dug into his pocket and took out a pair of latex gloves. “You don’t want to damage any evidence.”
With shaky hands, I accepted the gloves and hurried to put them on. Sure, it made me happy I found the book, but touching it, while it lay near bones, was a whole ‘nother story. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
In my peripheral vision, someone stepped in next to Kipp and that’s when I noticed Alexander. In that instant, I knew I had to suck it up, since Caley had it far worse. Something I didn’t want to forget. The sooner we helped Alexander, the sooner she’d have her body back. And the sooner I’d have Kipp.
“Keep breathing,” Kipp murmured.
I hadn’t realized I held my breath, but immediately exhaled and felt a little dizzy, which told me I’d been holding it for a while. I focused on my breaths to not pass out and lowered to my knees in front of the trunk.
Max and Dane had now taken protective stances around the group of us, and Zach returned to the staircase. The corners of the room were still dark, but no sounds were coming from upstairs and no bombs had gone off. I figured, for now, things were safe. Besides, anyone who ever dared come down those stairs would first meet Zach’s gun and he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot.
Turning to the trunk, I almost didn’t want to touch the book. For all this damn thing had put me through to get it, it almost felt dirty. As in, if I touched it, something horrible would happen that would end up being an even bigger mess.
That eerie sensation crawled over my skin, joining the creepy crawlers, but then I told myself the insanity of such a thought. I’d been dying to get my hands on the Lux to solve Kipp’s situation, and Alexander’s, too.
Doing my best to ignore the skeleton beneath the book, I opened the cover. In truth, after I read the spells I needed, I wanted to leave the book in the trunk forever. In fact, I’d rather burn the Lux. The spells only brought trouble. Sadly, that choice wasn’t mine to make, and I doubted Dane or Gretchen would let me burn it.
Flipping through the pages, I paused at the Stay Quiet Spell, forcing myself not to glance over at Alexander. After I skimmed the ritual, it became clear enough that this spell was how Wayde killed Alexander without being detected.
