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“Because of your own powers?”
Since there was no reason to demur, I nodded. Once I heard the whole story, I might get a flash of insight. Otherwise, I’d consult the Tarot, or visit the crystal ball on the altar in my office and see if Grandma Ellen had any advice she could give me. I figured the quicker I discovered who the real murderer was, the sooner I’d get Calvin Standingbear off my back. Since he obviously had no interest in a personal relationship with me, it seemed the best thing to do was get Lilith Black’s murder sorted out so he and I could go our merry ways.
“Okay.” Boden swallowed some more tea, then set his glass down on one of the coasters on the coffee table. “The ritual started around nine-thirty. We’d drawn the quarters and set out candles, and there was a bonfire as well.”
That all sounded almost exactly like my own ceremony. Which, all right, there were only so many variations on a solstice ritual. Still, I couldn’t keep myself from wondering if Lilith or Tansy had spied on my setup and stolen some of my ideas.
“The whole thing lasted for about an hour, I guess,” Boden went on. “Well, more, actually, because afterward, people lined up to place their petitions in the bonfire. Lilith presided over the whole thing, waving her hands from time to time to make it look as if she was putting some of her own mojo into the fire.”
He paused there and sent me an ironic glance, now looking more like the man who’d spilled all of Lilith’s secrets in the produce section of the local Super Walmart. Since I didn’t comment, he rubbed his hands on the knees of his jeans before continuing.
“That part probably took another half an hour or so. I think it was around eleven-thirty when the crowd really started to break up. That was when I met Emily.”
“The girl with the house?”
“Yeah.” He tucked some hair behind the other ear, revealing an impressive row of piercings — hoops and studs and a dangling silver pentacle. “We talked for a while, and she made it pretty clear that she wanted to use some of that midsummer energy with me. She was hot, so I figured, why not?”
About all I could do was make a noncommittal sound and take another sip of iced tea. I’d never been the sort of person to indulge in casual sex with people I didn’t know, so I couldn’t exactly relate.
Even though I was actually the product of exactly that kind of hook-up.
Luckily, my non-response seemed to be enough for Boden, because he went on, “I was with Emily at her house for a few hours, but I decided I didn’t want to stay the whole night, so I ducked out a little after five and came back to the Airbnb. There were a bunch of cop cars parked out front, and that’s when I found out what had happened.”
Personally, I had to wonder if Boden’s alibi was as iron-clad as Calvin seemed to think it was. Yes, the coroner had indicated that Lilith had died earlier in the night, but five o’clock was close enough to four that it had to be within the margin of error.
Except, of course, for the fact that there didn’t seem to be much of a motive. Even if Lilith and Boden hadn’t always gotten along — and I had to admit that I’d never seen them snipe at each other, since she seemed to mostly treat him like part of the furniture — why would he kill the woman who was financing his apparently carefree lifestyle?
“And what about Tansy?” I asked next. “Cal — I mean, Chief Standingbear said she had a good alibi, too.”
“Oh, she was working the site with a couple of volunteers, doing clean-up. Tansy and the people who were helping her had been taking some stuff back to the Airbnb when…well, when it happened.” Once again, Boden rubbed the palms of his hands on his knees. “She’s the one who found Lilith. She was lying next to the remains of the fire with her athame sticking out of her back.”
That was the same thing Calvin had told me, but hearing Boden describe it in such a dispassionate way made a little shiver run down my spine. I tried to tell myself that he was handling the situation like this so he wouldn’t lose it…and yet I still didn’t know for sure. If he really were guilty, wouldn’t his aura have looked very different?
Unless the murder truly hadn’t left any indelible marks on his soul. I somehow kept myself from shivering at the thought.
To force my mind away from that horrible notion, I said, “Tansy must be very shaken up,” and he nodded.
“Yeah, she’s taking it pretty hard.”
“Shouldn’t you be with her?”
Boden stared at me for a second or two, then shook his head, even as a flicker of irritation flashed in his dark eyes. “I doubt it. We don’t get along that well.”
“Why not?”
A shrug. “Because she could tell I wasn’t as convinced by Lilith’s all-encompassing greatness as she thought I should be.”
Interesting. So, Tansy hadn’t realized her idol was a conwoman of the first order?
“She believed in Lilith’s powers?” I asked.
Boden let out a disgusted breath. “Oh, yeah. It was kind of sad, actually, but Lilith loved having a little acolyte following her everywhere, worshipping her, so it wasn’t as though she would have ever told her the truth.”
While all this was interesting, I still couldn’t quite see why he’d come to confide in me. Maybe it was simply because I was the only halfway sympathetic person he knew in Globe.
“And so….” I said, drawing out the syllable, not sure if I even knew what I’d meant to say.
“You’re wondering why I came to see you.”
