Page 34 of Mystic Justice (The Other Detective #2)

Chapter Thirty-Two

‘Got something!’ Elvira called, holding up a book. ‘Oh boy, do I have something! It’s Jane’s journal and it details their plans. They’re planning on taking Sandra Jaxim tonight.’

I pulled out my phone and dialled Frost. She answered. ‘Ma’am?’

‘I need you to get Sandra Jaxim into protective custody. Now!’

‘We’re already en route, ma’am. When we were interviewing the staff, I spoke to Miss Jaxim about her fears and she said she had a recurring nightmare of being buried alive.

I wanted to secure her as soon as possible.

’ Her tone was apologetic because she hadn’t already notified me. ‘We’re five minutes from the station.’

‘You did the right thing. Good work.’ I hung up. ‘Frost has Jaxim and they’re heading to the station,’ I told the others.

‘That’s one less thing to worry about,’ Elvira said.

I shook my head. ‘Without Sandra to target, they’ll go for someone else. Which of us would be calm and cool if they were buried alive?’

Krieg shrugged. ‘I’d be okay.’

‘Well, I’d freak the hell out like most people would,’ I retorted. ‘Virtually anyone could be a target – bar Krieg, apparently.’

‘She’s always taken someone from Botany.’ Elvira was playing devil’s advocate. ‘She’s likely to do so again.’

‘Likely, but it’s not guaranteed.’ I thought for a moment then turned back to my phone and dialled Gideon.

He answered with a droll, ‘My dear Inspector, how can I assist you?’

I wanted to insist that he close Botany, but without that location to focus on we didn’t have anywhere else.

Calder would stay local; she wouldn’t go all the way back to York, and she had no other properties rented or owned in her name.

The properties that had belonged to Harbinger were in the process of being sold to finalise his estate, but none of them were local.

‘We have reason to believe that Sandra Jaxim will be targeted for the next killing,’ I explained. ‘She’s been taken into protective custody. We believe that Jane Calder is responsible for the deaths.’

‘Jane?’ Gideon’s voice was incredulous. ‘That’s absurd. She’s front of house. She’s lovely! She wouldn’t—’

‘Appearances can be deceptive, you know that.’ As a vampyr, he could appear as twelve or twenty or anything else besides, but that wasn’t his true age.

‘Indeed. What do you want me to do?’

‘Warn all of your staff to stay away from her. If they see her, they need to contact us immediately.’

‘I can send a staff-wide email.’

‘Fine – but be sure to remove Calder from the list. Then I want you to do a second email with her on it saying that Sandra will be late today because she has an appointment and you’ll be running things until she gets in.’

‘Ruben would normally—’

‘Ruben’s dead,’ I said bluntly. ‘We’re waiting for confirmation on his dental records, but he was the third victim.’

‘Fuck. Good managerial staff are hard to find,’ he huffed. His callous attitude didn’t surprise me a whit.

‘As far as everyone knows, you’re the manager tonight until Sandra gets in.

’ I hoped that would keep the killers’ gaze fixed on Botany and give us a chance to nab them.

‘We’ll be in the bar and monitoring the club from outside.

We know what both of the assailants look like and we’re closing in on them. ’ I hung up.

Elvira was still reading the journal. ‘Jane got the job at Botany because the temporal guards kick off shift and unwind there,’ she announced.

‘She was hoping to bribe or seduce one of them to let her go through the portal so she could go back in time to prevent Harbinger’s death.

None of them would bite and she got warned off.

That’s when she dug into her mother’s grimoire.

She didn’t find the answer there, so she went to the black market and bought several illegal potions and other grimoires – darker ones. She learned how to raise the dead.’

She looked at me grimly. ‘She killed a human, a homeless guy she bribed to come with her with some food, then she sliced his throat and used his blood to draw the runes on Harbinger’s corpse.’

She read on. ‘Harbinger came back to life as she’d planned, but she complains that it rapidly became clear that he wasn’t himself.

He didn’t love her. She needed to fix him.

’ She scanned the pages. ‘She found various elemental sacrifice rituals and decided to cobble them together to ground him properly. She thinks that if she kills using all the elements, his personality will be restored and he’ll love her again. ’ She sighed. ‘It’s kind of sad.’

‘Feel bad for her when she’s in Wraithmore,’ I snapped. ‘Let’s put a stop to this before Harbinger becomes unbeatable.’

My phone rang. David Evans calling. Dave was the toxicology expert I’d been waiting for. I swiped to answer. ‘What have you got for me?’

‘Hi, Dave? How was Enid’s wedding?’ he said pointedly.

‘All of that too,’ I snapped. ‘We can do that after. What have you got for me?’

‘Well, I’d say your theory that the girl was kidnapped was correct. She’d been fed Potion 203 repeatedly across a number of days.’

‘How do you know that?’

‘Trace amounts were still in her bloodstream and her liver was starting to break down. If she’d been fed much more, she’d have died from organ failure before she was drowned.’

‘Potion 203?’ I said, frowning. ‘I don’t know that one.’

‘You wouldn’t. It induces sleep but it was discontinued after the liver issue was flagged up. It was used legally for a short period of time but now it’s black market only and not much used. There are other potions that do the same thing without the deadly consequences.’

‘Okay. Thanks Dave.’ I paused. ‘How was Enid’s wedding?’

‘A thing of beauty,’ he responded warmly.

‘I’m glad. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly after you got back.’

‘You’re welcome. Kate had already emailed me several times and I couldn’t say no to both of you,’ he joked. His tone grew serious. ‘That poor dead girl never got a wedding like my Enid. It hits home. Get the killer, Wise.’

‘I’m on it.’

‘You always are,’ he said gently and hung up. His quiet faith warmed me a little. I hoped he was right.

‘I have déjà vu,’ Krieg said mildly as we sat in the beat-up Ford for yet another stakeout.

‘Yeah.’ I scrubbed a hand over my tired eyes. It was 11pm and I was getting edgier by the minute. All the deaths had taken place between 12 and 1.30am but what if they hadn’t taken the bait of waiting for Sandra? What if they’d simply swapped her out for someone else, someone not linked to Botany?

Kate had texted to confirm that the scorched dead body was indeed poor Ruben Jones. Passing the death message would have to wait a few hours while we were busy trying to keep some other poor sod alive.

My phone rang: Laura. ‘What are you doing ringing at this time of night?’ I demanded. The admin assistant was one of the few of us that kept to a proper nine-to-five schedule.

‘I’m compiling the report on Jingo like you told me. I came across a surveillance photo on the Drug Squad’s database. It’s got Harbinger in the background, right around the time of his death.’

I closed my eyes. ‘That’s why she’s putting all the bodies near the grove – she’s trying to make us look at Jingo.’ I bit my lip. ‘It hasn’t taken, though.’

If I were her and I blamed Jingo for my lover’s death, I’d go direct if indirect methods didn’t get results. ‘Have you got a contact number for Jingo or his second, Reed?’ I asked.

‘I’ve got one for Reed. I’ll send it through.’

‘Okay, thanks. Good work, Laura. Clock off now, it’s late.’

‘I’m actually a bit scared of being buried alive,’ she admitted in a small voice. ‘So I thought I’d stay at the station tonight.’

‘You go right ahead – but get some sleep. There’s a roll mat and a sleeping bag in my office cupboard. Use them.’

‘Thanks,’ she said and I could hear the gratitude in her voice.

‘No problem. Don’t forget Reed’s number.’ I hung up. Moments later the number beeped in and I called it.

‘Reed,’ he answered gruffly.

‘It’s Inspector Wise. I haven’t seen Jingo today. Has he been in communication with you?’

‘Why d’you wanna know?’

‘Because he may be a target for kidnap and murder.’

‘A normal Wednesday then,’ he muttered. ‘He’s with me.’

‘Pass him the phone,’ I ordered.

There was a beat of silence and then Jingo spoke. ‘Worried about me, Inspector?’ he all-but purred.

I glared, even though he couldn’t see me. ‘Harbinger has been brought back from the dead.’

There was a long pause. ‘That is … unfortunate,’ he said finally.

‘Indeed. I gather he – or his girlfriend – holds a grudge against you. I’m assuming you were responsible for his death.’

There was a whisper of a laugh. ‘I’m not going to incriminate myself, Inspector.’

‘You don’t need to. They’re looking for someone to bury alive.’

‘I’m currently a dryad. The earth contains roots and plant life – if I were buried alive, the trees would dig me out,’ he said confidently. ‘I’d be fine.’

A good point. I guessed I could remove any dryads from my ‘likely to be kidnapped and buried alive’ list.

‘Someone else won’t be,’ I said darkly. ‘But once Harbinger and his woman have killed their four targets, I believe they’ll keep on going.

More deaths, more magical energy, more power.

Killing gets easier the more you do it, as you well know.

’ I paused but he didn’t bite, so I continued.

‘Dropping the bodies in your territory is meant to either piss you off or frame you. Either way, you’re in their sights, Jingo. ’

‘Why, Inspector! I didn’t know you cared.’ His voice was warm, teasing.

My glare intensified. ‘I want you alive, Jingo, so that one day I can lock you up myself.’ I hung up.

‘Nice,’ Krieg said approvingly. ‘Solid mic-drop moment.’

Despite my dark mood his comment made me smile. ‘Thanks.’ I turned the comms to open. ‘Status check,’ I ordered.

‘Nothing here,’ Channing replied.

‘Nothing here,’ Elvira said.

‘All quiet,’ McCaffrey added. We were all tense; there were no quips or asides about kombucha tonight.

Frost was still ensconced in the station with Sandra. I waited for Ji-ho to check in from his van. When the silence dragged on just a beat too long, fear ricocheted through me.

I threw open my door and started to run. Ji-ho was afraid of being underground.