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“I found out some more stuff,” he said, sounding cheerful. Then again, he tended to generally be upbeat, not the kind of disposition she would have expected from someone who had demon blood running through their veins.

“So did I,” she replied.

“Perfect. Then why don’t you come over and we’ll talk about it? I’ll order pizza.”

She could work with that. Because her day had been so busy, she hadn’t even eaten lunch, only wolfed down a protein bar and drank some water during a brief lull between clients. Making up the calorie deficit with a couple of slices of pepperoni sounded like a great idea.

“Okay,” she said. “I just need to finish closing up shop over here, so I can be at your place in about twenty minutes.”

“See you then.”

Delia finished locking up the office and then headed out to her car.

Traffic was awful, of course, but eventually she pulled into the driveway of the Pueblo Street house.

The whole way over, she’d kept checking her rearview mirrors and being as vigilant as possible, and yet she didn’t think anyone had followed her.

Of course, she’d taken extra precautions.

Maybe it was crazy, but she’d carefully daubed all the door handles of her SUV with holy water, figuring if any of the demons lurking out there tried to mess with her car, they’d be in for a rude shock.

For all she knew, that application of holy water had also allowed her to fly under the radar, so to speak.

There was so much about how all this worked that she just didn’t know.

But there was Caleb, smiling and inviting her in, and an open bottle of chianti already waited on the kitchen counter.

“I went ahead and ordered the pizza,” he told her as he handed over a glass. “From the way you sounded on the phone, I figured you wouldn’t want to wait. Pepperoni and black olives and bell peppers, right?”

They’d hung out together enough that he knew just what she liked. Sending him a grateful smile, she said, “Absolutely right. And thanks for ordering the pizza. I didn’t have a chance to eat lunch, so I’m starving.”

“Well, it’ll be here in a couple of minutes.” Caleb paused there, warm brown eyes carefully surveying her. “Do you want to talk about it now, or wait for the pizza to get here?”

“Let’s wait,” she replied. “It won’t be too much longer, right?”

“Probably not. I called them ten minutes ago.”

They used up the remaining time by getting the table set and putting some neutral, almost New Age music on in the background.

Delia would have thought Caleb was more of a head-banger, but it seemed she was wrong about that…

or he’d simply decided it would be better to play something that wasn’t quite so intrusive.

The food arrived right on time, which meant they were sitting at the dining room table soon enough. Caleb topped off their glasses of chianti and waited while she put a slice of pizza on her plate.

“So,” he said, and gave her an expectant look.

“Maybe this is all nothing,” she began, and his eyebrow lifted.

“If it was ‘nothing,’ then you wouldn’t be so worried about it.”

Had she really been so obvious? Yes, she’d been keyed up ever since she’d gotten Pru’s text, but she didn’t think her agitation had been that plain.

Caleb was more perceptive than he let on, though. And since he’d already known something was up, he’d probably been looking at her with a more critical eye than usual.

“Aaron Sanchez,” she said, then allowed herself a fortifying sip of chianti.

“Pru discovered that he paid off all his student loans around six months ago. He also bought a brand-new BMW for cash right around the same time…and he moved into a fancy condo, one that’s apparently owned by Aegis Holdings, if the information on the county recorder’s site is to be believed. ”

“That’s a whole lot of coincidences,” Caleb remarked before biting off a piece of loaded pizza.

“I thought so, too,” Delia replied. Her stomach wouldn’t allow her to ignore the toothsome aroma rising from the slice on her plate any longer, so she picked it up and allowed herself a few bites.

Seeming to understand that she needed to eat in peace, he was quiet for a moment as she chewed. But once she’d washed down the pizza with some more wine, he said, “Have you heard anything from that guy at Aegis Holdings?”

“No,” she said. “I guess he decided the property wasn’t the right fit.”

“Or maybe he’s just waiting for the right moment.”

That possibility had crossed her mind, but in the world of real estate, hanging back and waiting wasn’t always the best strategy. “To see if we come down in price?”

“Maybe,” Caleb replied. “I mean, I don’t have any plans to do that, but — ”

“I don’t think you’ll need to,” Delia said quickly. “Marcy Talbott messaged me this morning and said her buyers were very interested but that they were still thinking it over. And there’s the open house tomorrow.”

The smile he sent her after she delivered that statement was almost indulgent.

“I’m not worried about the house selling.

Sure, it would be nice to not have so much money tied up in it, but since I’m not paying a mortgage and won’t have to worry about property taxes for almost a year, it’s not that big a deal. ”

She’d already known that, and yet it was good to have confirmation from Caleb that he didn’t expect her to have the place sold by the end of the week.

“So, it’s fairly obvious that Sanchez is sus, even if we don’t really know the depth of his involvement with Aegis Holdings,” he went on. “It’s too bad you weren’t able to pick up more of what he was thinking when you were with him.”

The thought of having to muck around in Aaron Sanchez’s mind wasn’t remotely appealing. Delia shrugged, then said, “Well, next time I’ll try the full Vulcan mind meld.”

Caleb chuckled, as she’d sort of hoped he would.

“With any luck, there won’t be a next time.

It’s probably better for you to give him as wide a berth as possible.

I know that won’t be completely easy, not when you might have to interact with him professionally, but I suppose as long as you’re not alone together, you should be okay. ”

She wouldn’t argue, not when doing everything she could to avoid being alone with Aaron Sanchez sounded like a pretty good idea. Since she didn’t have too much more to offer on that subject, she said, “Sooo…you have some news, too?”

“I do,” Caleb replied, clearly not deterred by the obvious change in topic.

“Jim Whitaker — the P.I. I hired — found some pretty sketchy stuff about Paul Reeves. Supposedly, he owns a carpet-cleaning business, but Jim says he’s pretty sure it’s a front of some kind.

The company was created about eight years ago, and yet it only has a handful of Google reviews. ”

“Well, maybe people don’t see the same need to review a carpet-cleaning business as they do a restaurant or something,” Delia responded. Taken on its own, that particular data point didn’t seem too significant.

“Maybe not,” Caleb said. “But then Jim told me he copied and pasted a couple of the reviews he did find into Google to see if they popped up anywhere else, and sure enough, they were originally posted about other carpet-cleaning companies across the country. The name of the business was changed, obviously, but otherwise, they were identical.”

All right, that sounded pretty fishy. And Delia had to admit that a carpet-cleaning outfit might be the perfect cover for all sorts of shady activities.

No one paid much attention to a van with a business logo on it, whether it was driving around town…

or parked in front of a particular property for a lengthy amount of time, the way a carpet cleaner would need to be.

“Did he find anything else?”

“Not yet,” Caleb said. He’d finished his first slice of pizza, so he reached into the box to get another.

“Does Paul Reeves own or rent his home?” Delia asked next, since she’d certainly hit pay dirt on Aaron Sanchez when looking at him from that angle.

Or at least, Prudence had.

“Own,” Caleb said briefly. He swallowed some chianti, then added, “Nothing weird there, as far as Jim was able to tell. Regular mortgage, one he took out about ten years ago. No defaults or late payments or anything like that.”

Well, if he really was using his carpet-cleaning business to launder money, then Delia supposed Mr. Reeves would do whatever he could to look like an honest, upstanding member of society.

“Okay, so he’s someone we definitely need to keep an eye on,” she said. “What about Ty Carter?”

He was the one she was really interested in, although she kept that thought to herself.

She didn’t want Caleb getting jealous.

Something that sounded suspiciously like a sigh, and he set down his wine glass.

“Clean as a whistle, according to Jim. The guy’s worked as a tennis pro at DragonRidge Country Club for about five years, and before that, he worked at another tennis club in Brentwood, California.

He’s renting a townhouse not too far from the place where he works now.

No complaints, nothing out of the ordinary. ”

Nothing except the way he’d summoned her to a house he’d somehow known was haunted, even if the people who’d actually lived there apparently didn’t have a clue.

Or the way he might or might not have awakened some latent psychic powers that had been buried deep within her.

Caleb seemed to think that was a natural consequence of spending time around him, but Delia wasn’t sure whether she bought that idea.

After all, she’d known him for several months now, so why had that strange ability to read minds appeared only recently instead of soon after they’d met?

She had no idea…and she had a feeling that if she pressed him on the subject, he probably wouldn’t know, either.

“But you of all people know it isn’t that hard to hide information about your identity,” she pointed out, and Caleb gave a reluctant nod.