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There had been no murder suicide, but a double homicide. Curt had killed both of Bryson’s parents and taken the baby. There was no doubt to her now who they were. The final picture was of him coming out of the house with the child in his arms. Christ, he’d killed them.
Putting the photos in the case that she’d brought, Blaze had to sit down. This was an entirely different can of worms here. It was bad enough that he’d taken the child from them, but he’d actually killed them to get Bryson. She knew that he’d killed Dawn’s mother, but that crime was being taken care of by the witches’ council, where he would be punished much worse than he would if it were a human court. This murder would be taken to the highest courts.
Leaving the bank, she was worried that somehow Ellen had been in on the murders. Who had taken the pictures? Who had put them in the box? Blaze thought that of all the things Ellen had told her were in the box, she’d not mentioned the fact that there was proof that he’d murdered two people.
Then it occurred to her where the pictures might have come from—they might well have been from a recording. That would explain why they weren’t in perfect focus. They were good, but not perfect. Then someone could have slipped into the bank after it was closed and put the pictures into the bank drawer. It would have to be someone who could see into the future enough to know just where the pictures could be found. It was all speculation, but Blaze thought that she had it right. Of course, there was no way of knowing who had done it just now.
As soon as she arrived home, she realized that she had to talk to Bryson first and foremost. He would want to know, and she would hate for him to find out about what really happened that day from anyone but her. When he came home from the meetings he had lined up for today, she almost hated to tell him. Bryson looked as if he had had a wonderful day.
“I have a line on getting a thousand bottles of water. Not really a great deal when you think about how many people will need it, but it’s a start. Also, the man who said that he’d give me the coats? Well, they arrived today. Not only did he send along coats, but— What’s happened?” She shook her head and told him to tell her. “No, I want you to tell me what’s happened. I can see it on your face and feel it. What did you find in the safety deposit box that you don’t want to tell me about?”
Instead of telling him, she showed him the pictures. When he sat down on the couch where she’d been waiting for him, he just stared at them for several minutes before going to the next. When he had looked at all of them, he moved back over them and studied the one where Curt was leaving the house with Bryson in his arms.
“Do you know who took these?” She said that she didn’t, but had brought them to him. “Ellen never mentioned these. Not once. Do you think that someone else put them in the box for us to find?”
“I don’t know. There are people that could do that, but I’d have to talk to them all to find out who it might have been.” He nodded and kept staring at the picture of him in Curt’s arms. “You do know that he’s going to have to go down for this, if nothing else. I have the book, but this, these pictures, they’re going to go a long way in convicting him for these crimes.”
He nodded while laying the pictures down. When Bryson leane
d back on the couch, she let him think. Thinking was something that he did well. But he didn’t want to be pestered, and he didn’t just toss out ideas only to have them cut down. Bryson could have the best thoughts on whatever he was thinking about.
“I don’t think we should take this to the police.” She started to protest when he spoke again. “I think we should give it to my grandparents. The police, I have a feeling, would just blow it off. I don’t know why I think that. But you have to admit that it’s a very old crime, and the only two people that were really hurt by it were my parents. They would just go through the motions, but not really work very hard to solve the crime.”
“Why your grandparents? Why not you?” He said that they’d have a more vested interest in this. “You don’t?”
“I do. But again, I wasn’t harmed by it. Neither were my grandparents for that matter. Not physically anyway. But they will put up a bigger fight than anyone around. And they have the power to back their issue about how long it took the police to solve it more than we do. Understand?” She said that she really didn’t. “My grandparents knew that Curt had killed my parents. They just didn’t know how he’d done it. This proves that not only were they right in wanting him checked out, but that there is also the added crime of kidnapping. They would take a better stand on that than either of us would.”
“Okay, I guess I understand that. But as far as how they acquired the pictures. How do you explain that to the public? I think that bringing Ellen in on it would be just as bad as him doing the crime. They’d not believe that she wasn’t in on it. I’m not even sure that she wasn’t, to be honest.” He smiled at her. “You’ve got a very good plan, don’t you?”
“Oh yes. They have me back, and they say that when they decided to see what had really happened that day, someone put these pictures in their mailbox. That way, Ellen is not involved at all, and they can say that this book came with the pictures.” She asked him how he knew that Ellen wasn’t involved. “I don’t. That’s where you and the other birds come in. You can figure it out for me. If she’s even remotely guilty of anything having to do with this, I want her in the cell next to him. I’m done being taken for a sap.”
“Dawn.” He nodded. “You do know that you have to go to see the council, remember? You not only have to explain her death, but what happened to bring you to that point. Not that I think they’ll have an issue with your reasoning, but have you thought about what you’ll tell them?”
“She killed her own parents. Not both of them directly, but she was just as guilty as Curt was for killing them. Now that she’s dead, I find myself as untrusting as I’ve ever been. Not of you and the birds, but everyone I know is under suspicion when it comes to having me trust them.” Blaze said that wasn’t such a bad thing when it came to business. “No, but I’m feeling myself being crippled by it. So much so that I question what I do with every move that I make. I don’t want to feel that way. It’s not a good feeling when I question everything.”
She’d not seen that on him. He was good at hiding things from her, but that, she felt she should have known. Sitting closer to him, she simply held him as he did the same to her. Blaze loved this man more than she did herself.
“I have to go and see the council in an hour. I know that you’re busy with things, but I was wondering if you’d go with me. Then when we get back, we spend the rest of today in bed. I think we need a nice nap or two.” She looked at him. “Or not necessarily a nap, but something will come to us, I’m sure.”
“I like that plan. Let me make a couple of calls and I’ll join you. But you should know that I don’t think you’ll be in much trouble over killing Dawn.” He said that he had no idea what to expect. “Yes, I guess you wouldn’t. Give me five minutes and I’ll go with you.”
He was sitting on the couch when she returned. Bryson was sound asleep. When she sat down across from him, she reached out to Mercy and the others to let them know what was going on. Mercy asked if she should go too.
If you’d like. I think that you’d be a bit more knowledgeable about what he might have to do than either of us. When you were there the last time, what was that for? Mercy told her. Yes, that’s right. You broke up a ring of men trying to form a Black Knights Club. I didn’t think they had those sort of clubs anymore, did you?
No. But you know what they’re about when they’re all gathered. I barely was able to save the woman that they’d taken. Those kinds of clubs generally are filled with men that have nothing better to do with their time than to bitch and moan about how women don’t do what they want them to do. I had to explain to them how that was the twentieth century, and women no longer were slaves to men. Blaze laughed when she did. They find out on the Internet about that old club and try to make it work in today’s world. It just doesn’t work like that anymore.
I don’t know that it did all those decades ago either. Again they both laughed, and Blaze realized that Bryson was awake and looking at her. Just meet me here and we’ll head out.
There wasn’t any way to travel between the witches’ world and this one without magic. Blaze was trying to figure out how to make hers work for them when Bryson just took hers and Mercy’s hands and they were there. It took her several seconds to remember that Bryson had gotten some of the magic that Dawn had had. They were seated at a long table when the councilmen came into the room.
“This won’t take long, Lord Bryson.” He nodded and told them that he’d do whatever they needed. He was just glad that no one had killed him over this. “Kill you? On no, it is us that owe you a great deal, sir. We have been trying to solve the deaths of so many other witches for a great many years. The fact that it...well, that it took a non-witch to do so has made us very unhappy with ourselves. We strive to take care of our own. But in thanking you properly for what you’ve done, we have put the substantial amount of money that was to be Dawn’s when she reached a certain age into an account for you. We also have a bit of magic for you. All of that which Dawn was to get from her parents that day.”
“I don’t need anything, gentlemen. Just to have her gone from my life, that is all I need. I had no idea what sort of person I was dealing with all these years. Nor did I understand what she did to become a part of my life.” One of the five men asked him if he would like his memories returned. “No, I wouldn’t. The ones that I have now are bad enough. But I do thank you for asking.”
“You are a very pleasant man, Lord Bryson. And you being mated to one of the birds, as they call themselves, has made you even stronger than you might have been if you’d only killed Dawn and not met the women.” Bryson said that he didn’t know that he’d have found out what he had about Dawn without them. “Yes, you would have. Somewhere along her lifeline, you would have found out all you needed to destroy her. However, you would not have survived either. This way is so much better.”
“No fucking shit.” The council looked at Mercy when she spoke. “If you’d not mind, I’d really like to get back to my child. This is all nice and everything that you’re not going to fine him for killing a witch, but I’m sure there are other things you wish to say. Get on with it so we can go back to our merry lives.”
