I gathered up the photos, not wanting to look closer but realizing that we needed to examine everything we could. “It might be too late for the earlier victims, but can we get into their homes to look for evidence?”
“I’ll call the families and ask. Talia and Yutani, start researching their backgrounds. See what you can dig up on the net. Yutani, if you have to, go out on the Dark Web. Necromancers often are involved in shady dealings.” Herne glanced at me. “Viktor and Ember, see if you can get into their homes. Make a list of people to interview and head out this afternoon. And all of you, we don’t want this information leaking out. Right now, nobody’s put it together that a serial killer is running around, but it’s only a matter of time.”
“What about me?” Angel asked.
“Your search-engine savvy is good. While we work on this, can you see if you can find any mention of Callan and where he’s hiding? We know Saílle is protecting him right now, but if we can get any clue of where he’s actually hiding…”
“Will do,” she said, looking grateful for the chance to research something a little less gruesome.
“Okay, then, everybody get moving.” After he dismissed the meeting, I followed Angel out to her desk.
“This is a bad one,” she said, shaking her head. “I can feel it, Ember. This one’s a gut-wrencher.” She pulled up a browser and began to type in search words to try to locate Callan. A moment later, she paused, turning to me. “I’m afraid. Not for myself, and not even for you, but this one feels like it could get personal. I don’t know how or why, but it’s coming close to home. Maybe it’s just the energy of Typhon beginning to infiltrate the world. I find myself avoiding driving near graveyards lately, and I keep a watch on the skies, expecting to see something coming in on the horizon.”
I leaned against the post behind her desk. “I understand. I have that same uneasy feeling, and after my vision today, I’m even more leery. Do you know where your fear is lodged? If it’s not you or me, then…maybe just general?”
She frowned, then shrugged. “I don’t know, to be honest. I can only feel it around the periphery. Do you think this has something to do with Typhon?”
I thought about it. “Maybe. But the only link I can make is the fact that all of the victims have been connected to the psychic world, and four of them specifically focused on death magic. Maybe…hey, run a check on the psychic. See if he specialized in any particular direction. He was the tiger shifter, right?”
Angel consulted the files. “Right, Mendin Casey. He was a tiger shifter and he was single. All right. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
“Okay.” I let out a sigh. “I better get back to my desk. Viktor and I have to head out and check out the list of names. Don’t forget you’ll be going to Marilee’s alone.”
She nodded. “Yeah. But I need you to drive me home. On the way to work this morning, my car blew something, pouring smoke out from under the hood. They still haven’t pinpointed the problem, so I’ll have to take a taxi over to Marilee’s. And before I go, I need to pick up some things from the house.” She paused. “What do you think Morgana wants to talk to you about? I don’t envy you there.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad,” I said, smiling. “She’s actually pretty cool, for a goddess. Besides, I’m dating her son. She likes me…I think. Or…I hope.”
Chapter Four
Our first stop was Mendin Casey’s house. Mendin had been the tiger shifter, and he lived alone in a small two-story brick house on Kinnear Place in the Queen Anne District. We parked on the street, gazing up at the house, which sat at the top of a sloping yard. A series of concrete steps—probably twenty of them—led to the bottom of the porch, where another flight led to the front door. The yard was impeccably landscaped with tidy ferns, and the lavender and juniper bushes were neatly trimmed.
As we sat in the car, I frowned. Entering a dead man’s house always felt so odd. Especially when the person had lived alone. It was like there was this sudden interruption to life as we knew it. There were always reminders that the deceased had been in the middle of something, and the house always felt heavy with unfinished energy.
“I guess we should go in. The landlady said she’d be waiting for us.” I glanced at my watch. We couldn’t put it off much longer.
“You sure your timing is accurate? You break watches.”
It was true—watches broke around me, but Marilee had taught me a dampening spell so that I didn’t leak so much energy.
“No, I think we’re on time. Let’s go.” I stepped out of the car and smoothed back my hair. I was about as presentable as I was going to look today, and that was the best I could do.
We headed up the front steps. They were steep and cracked, with moss growing between the breaks in the concrete.
“So he was renting the place. I wonder who took care of the yard, Mendin or his landlady,” I said as we headed toward the porch steps. Above the porch was a balcony that opened into what probably was a master bedroom. The brick looked clean, which meant that it had been power washed during the year to blast off the ever-present mold and mildew that permeated the area.
“By the landlady’s tone on the phone, my guess is that Mendin took care of it. She said that nobody has contacted her about his belongings, so I told her we’d send someone to box them up after we look through them. We can keep them while we search for any next of kin. But Mendin was a loner, so I’m not sure how much luck we’ll have there.”
The landlady was waiting for us. As we reached the top of the stairs, the door opened. She introduced herself as Leela, and she was younger than I had expected, though I wasn’t sure why I had expected an elderly woman. But the woman standing in front of us looked to be in her forties, and she was thin, with skin that looked like she had lived a hard life. She had wrinkles around her lips in that manner that only smokers get, and she was wearing an old pair of jeans with holes in the knees, and an olive green tank top. Her hair was flame red, curling down to her shoulders.
We showed her our identification and she let us in. Mendin had died in this house, and the blood had saturated the carpet. I blinked, staring at the mess. The house needed a hazmat team. I didn’t want to touch anything.
Viktor gave me a quick look and I shook my head. I wasn’t about to inflict this on the team Viktor had hired to pack up Mendin’s possessions. “We can’t do much about his belongings until you get a cleaning team in here. You’ll need people specifically trained to handle blood and any other…tissue that might be around.” I turned to Leela. “We’ll take a look at his computer system and try to find next of kin, but I’m not authorizing anybody coming in here until that is taken care of.” I pointed to the carpet. “It looks like a blood bomb went off.”
“That’s not my fault, and I shouldn’t have to pay for the cleaning.” She crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes.
“You may not have to,” Viktor said. “The city has a special fund you can apply to if you’ve been affected by a major crime, for things like this—cleaning and car rental and so forth.”