Page 14 of Mystic Justice (The Other Detective #2)

Chapter Twelve

The owner of the Botany, Gideon Merrick, proved elusive so after interviewing all the staff who were there, we headed off to the morgue. I rode with Krieg. He stayed quiet as I mentally rifled through the interviews and made notes in my PNB of my impressions of each person I’d spoken to.

I had access to all of Channing’s notes through SPEL, but there was nothing in them to send up any red flags. I wasn’t worried; we still had another six staff members to interview as well as Merrick, and we’d run them down tomorrow.

It was rare for murders to be wholly random: probability and experience told me that Moss had probably known her killer at least a little. I just needed to keep tugging at strings and at some point I would unravel them.

Kass had texted back; she was still in Edinburgh but she had greenlighted for her coven to give me the CCTV footage. Her impressions of Sandra were brief: not her favourite person, she didn’t have much of a spine and she had a pathological need to be liked.

Kate was my last stop for the day and I hoped she’d found some evidence that would tell us in big neon letters who the kidnappers and killers were.

When I pushed open the door to the morgue, it was unmanned: it appeared that Kate’s dryad sentinel, Sharon, had already left for the day. ‘You stay here,’ I ordered Loki. The last thing we needed was for him to poop on evidence or rain feathers down onto the corpse.

‘Stay?’ Loki spat in outrage. ‘I not dog!’ He flew to the bonsai tree in the corner and pointedly turned his back on me.

‘We won’t be long,’ I promised and made sure to flick on Sharon’s extra desk light in case the motion-sensor light blacked out while we were in the heart of the building.

I walked ahead of Krieg and Channing, leaving a sulky Loki squawking grumpily to himself. I couldn’t hear all of his comments but his muttered ‘Pigdog’ was clear enough. Even so, he relocated to Sharon’s desk to be near the light.

Kate looked up as we walked into her domain.

She was obviously tired: her usual red lipstick had long since faded, leaving an inelegant pinkish stain in its wake; her riotous curls were contained with a hair tie, and her glasses were sitting on the end of her nose like they’d slid down and she was simply too tired to push them back for the thousandth time.

‘Hey. You okay?’ I asked with real concern.

She summoned a weary smile. ‘This one was draining,’ she admitted. ‘I just knew something was off but try as I might I couldn’t quite work out what. I used my magic to call up any runes on her skin but there was nothing to see.’

‘You’re a witch?’ I asked, genuinely surprised. I had always assumed she was a wizard, and she’d never mentioned a coven.

‘Yes,’ she admitted tightly. ‘My sister and I are covenless – by choice.’

I blinked; that was a rare choice indeed. ‘Okay, so you tried to see if any runes were present?’ I prompted.

‘I ran my magic through Miss Hollings in case she’d had runes painted on her that were invisible to the naked eye,’ she explained patiently.

‘I felt my magic pull, but nothing happened and no runes lit up. I searched every inch of her. I was confused by what was happening so tried it a few times. Each time I realised I was getting more and more exhausted.’

Using your magic could make you tired but the lines on Kate’s face spoke of something more than an average day’s work. ‘Something is draining your magic,’ I surmised.

Kate gave me a relieved smile. ‘I knew you’d get it! Absolutely – something was draining me and I couldn’t see what. I left that alone after a few failed attempts and started with the post-mortem. I found something you need to see.’

The body on the gurney was covered with a sheet. Kate carefully peeled it back to reveal Moss’s youthful face framed by bright pink hair and a chest cavity that had been opened wide and the internal organs removed. I leaned closer to see what Kate wanted to show me and gaped.

Inside the cavity, the ribs were covered in runes.

They were black and looked like they’d been scorched on somehow.

Next to me Channing paled and took a step back, looking like he was about to throw up.

Before I could tell him to get out if he was going to hurl, Krieg pushed his head between his legs and Channing took some steadying breaths.

I ignored the men and turned back to the corpse that was demanding justice.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’ I murmured, looking intently at the ribs. ‘How is it possible that the runes are internal?’

‘I don’t know,’ Kate said hopelessly. ‘I’ve never seen it before, either. What I can tell you is that the time of death was between 1am and 1.30am.’

I reached a hand into my pocket, feeling the smooth weight of my dad’s pocket watch in my fingers.

I turned the watch round and round as I thought.

If that was the time of death, Sandra could have done it.

She’d lied about staying until the shift had ended.

Yes, I definitely needed to take a look at Sandra Jaxim.

Kate continued. ‘Moss’s last meal appears to have been plain porridge but I also detected a potion in her system. I haven’t been able to identify it yet, so I’ve sent off her blood to Dave for a full toxicology report. He’ll get back to us when he can but he’s off today – his daughter’s wedding.’

‘Fair enough. When is he back in?’

‘Tuesday.’

My tension eased; that wasn’t too long a wait. ‘Okay, thanks. Anything else I need to know?’

‘Her liver is showing surprising degradation for someone her age, but there are no other signs of alcohol or drug abuse, which is unusual. She had good muscle tone – I’d say she was a runner.

The marks around her wrist, as you’d noted in your report, were made from rope and there was some form of man-made fibre in the lacerations that had started to heal.

I’d say she was bound and struggled against the restraints. ’

I’d known that, been certain of it. Once upon a time I’d had similar marks. I let none of that show on my face.

Kate went on, ‘I’d agree with your suggestion that she was kidnapped and held prior to her death. Besides that, lovely Moss looked after herself – hair freshly dyed, nails manicured, toes pedicured.’

‘She enjoyed taking care of herself,’ I murmured. ‘She wanted to be a singer. A star.’

Kate sighed. ‘It’s a crying shame because she was so full of promise. I care about everyone who comes into my domain but the young ones always hit me hardest. I think about the paths they didn’t take, the experiences they’ll never have, the dreams they’ll never fulfil. It just slays me.’

‘That’s because you’re a good person. It should hurt. The day it doesn’t is the day we quit.’

She nodded solemnly. ‘I’ll type up my findings and make sure Dave prioritises the toxicology when he’s back in. I hope you find some answers for Moss’s family.’

‘I certainly intend to.’ I didn’t promise because there were no certainties in policing, but I’d definitely give it my all. ‘Thanks for staying late. I owe you.’

‘Not at all. Sometimes you have to do what is right, even if it isn’t easy.’ A yawn cracked her face.

‘Should you be driving home?’

She waved my concern aside. ‘I’ll be fine. As a doctor, you get used to functioning with no sleep.’

‘That’s not a good thing.’

‘I know. But it is handy in a crisis.’

‘Message me when you’re home safe,’ I said.

It wasn’t a request but she smiled as if it were. She touched my arm, her eyes soft with quiet affection. ‘I will. Thanks.’

We waited until she’d locked up before heading out ourselves.

Loki was not so quietly fuming. ‘Leave Loki,’ he complained loudly. ‘Like Loki a Common bird.’ He spat out the word like it was a curse.

‘I know you’re not a bird, Loki, but we can’t risk contaminating—’

Loki squawked loudly, interrupting me. ‘I no ruin evidence. Loki smart.’

‘Of course you are—’ I started to say to placate my cranky caladrius.

He turned his back on me, lifted his tail up and pooped.

The white splat hit the floor and I stared at it for a moment.

The mess was definitely a Sharon problem; if anyone deserved bird poop at the start of their day, it was the cranky dryad.

Besides, exhaustion was clawing at me after yet another long day and I didn’t have the bandwidth, or the cleaning products, to deal with more shit.

Home was calling me and I would have gone straight there but for my mum’s name flaring on my phone screen.

Dammit. I was late for dinner. Again.