Chapter Thirteen
R afe was a handsome young man, tall and long-legged with rugged features, sandy-blond hair, and wide eyes that currently looked tired and every bit haunted.
My heart sympathized for him, having to travel all this way with so much to digest and few answers.
He towered over me as he gave me a hug. “It’s nice to see you. I mean, considering the circumstances. Thanks for helping us out, Mrs. Flaherty.” His body language said tense as a bow, ready to release its arrow. As though he was holding all his fears and questions on the inside to keep them from splitting him open.
I grabbed his hand and pulled him to a chair. “I’m going to be honest. I don’t know how much I’m helping, but we’re sure trying to figure this out.”
Dropping into the chair, he looked at me with a somber gaze. “I got here as soon as I could, but Eve said she told you, my flight was delayed by a day. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t up for a cross-country run, so I grabbed a flight.”
Sometimes I forget we’re capable of running long distances, even though I do it every day to get to Nina’s.
“Under the circumstances, I’m glad you flew.”
“I just want to see Charmaine and be sure she’s okay. Eve told me she was staying here with you. I didn’t think to call first. I just came right here.” He looked exhausted, purple bruises under his eyes, and shoulders fallen in defeat.
“I’m glad you came, Rafe.”
His eyes went watery. “I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe my dad would say he did something like this.”
I nodded. “I keep hearing that, but he’s admitted to it, Rafe. It’s been a really weird couple of days, for sure. Let me bring you up to speed, then you can ask me whatever you want to know, and I’ll try to fill you in.”
I told him almost everything we knew to date and what all parties concerned had told us, but I was stalling when it came to broaching the subject of Zinnia’s pregnancy.
He nodded, sometimes taking a sharp inhalation of breath, but when I was done, Rafe remained eerily silent as he digested my words.
“How close were you to Zinnia, Rafe?”
Wanda and Nina interrupted my question as they came down the stairs, having a disagreement, unaware I was with Rafe.
“I dunno, Wanda, how do you ask a kid if her father knocked up somebody she considers almost a sister?”
“I don’t know, Mistress of the Dark, I was just thinking out loud about whether it could have helped it we’d asked her if she knew. Maybe Hollis saw something no one else did.”
Nina scoffed. “And you two ninnies call me insensitive? Hah!”
When they entered the living room and saw me sitting with Rafe by the fire, they stopped dead in their tracks.
I spread my arm wide. “Wanda, Nina—this is Rafe Ellis. Rafe, my friends and partners in our detective agency.”
Nina’s lips thinned, one of the few times her expression went sheepish. “Shit, shit, shit. Sorry, Marty.”
Rafe jumped up from his chair, pulling at the collar of his Bills sweatshirt. “Did you just say my father got Zinnia pregnant?” he asked in disbelief.
Nina winced. “Not in those exact words, no…”
His eyes, wide and wild, looked to me. “Mrs. Flaherty? What’s going on?”
Wanda was the first to soothe him. “Please, Rafe, sit down and we’ll explain everything, including our big mouths.”
He sat back down, but it was with reluctance. “I…I don’t understand. And where’s my sister? Is she okay?”
“She’s fine, Rafe. She’s upstairs with Hollis, and she’ll stay with us until we figure this all out,” I assured him with a gentle tone. “Now, to explain. First, did you know Zinnia was pregnant?”
His face changed then, going from worried to panicked. “I did.”
I reached over and grabbed his hand, my eyes capturing his. “Was the baby yours, Rafe?”
Tears filled his eyes as he looked down at his shoes. “Ye…yes!” He clenched my hand as though bracing for what he was sure was going to be bad news.
“Are you aware your father is claiming he had an affair with Zinnia?”
Rafe’s head popped up, and he blinked. “That’s not true, Mrs. Flaherty! Why would he say something like that? I was in love with Zinnia— we were in love! She would never do something like that. She’d never cheat. But with my father ? Just the thought of it makes me want to throw up.”
“We’re as confused as you, buddy,” Nina said, hunching down next to me. “But he admitted to killing her and having an affair with her.”
He let his head sink to his hands, covering his face. “No, no, no! That’s not true. I don’t understand why he’s doing this, but I need to talk to him and straighten this out. What the hell is going on?” Instantly, he was sheepish. “Sorry for swearing, ma’am.”
God, this was a mess. “How long had you two been seeing each other?”
“Almost a year,” he said, his voice gruff and tight. “It started last year over spring break, and we kept in touch when we went back to school, then over fall break we…after a Halloween party…”
Wanda nodded. “No need to say more, we understand. When did she tell you she was pregnant, Rafe?”
“Right after the New Year. But I swear, I was going to take care of her! I was ready to take responsibility, and not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because I loved her. I honestly loved her, and I told her whatever she wanted to do, I’d support her. We were going to tell my dad and Eve and Pearl about us and the baby soon.”
Wanda cocked her head. “So no one knew you were seeing each other?”
“No, ma’am. Not that I’m aware of.”
I held up my phone and showed him the letter I’d found at Pearls. “Did you write this?”
He ran his hand over his hair after only glancing at it. “Yeah. I gave it to her just before I left for school. She was upset, and she knew our families would disapprove because we’re so young and still in school. But we loved each other, Mrs. Flaherty, and I don’t care what my dad said, we were going to find a way to be together, but now…she’s gone…” His shoulders shook as he began to cry in earnest.
Young love could be so agonizingly tragic. “So your dad would have disapproved of the two of you as a couple?”
That didn’t feel like Ron at all…but what did feel like the Ron I’d known since the girls were toddlers?
“We didn’t give him or Pearl the chance to disapprove. I’m almost positive they wouldn’t have disapproved of us as a couple. We just knew they wouldn’t like it at this point in our lives. It’s why we kept it a secret. They wanted us to finish school and find ourselves, begin our careers. But I know he loved Zinnia probably as much as he loved me and Char.”
Nina sat on the floor in front of him, crossing her legs. “So why do ya think he’d say he was having an affair with Zinnia, and why do ya think he’d kill her?”
Rafe opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, Rafe shook his head. He looked so lost and discouraged, I didn’t know what to say. His entire world was crumbling around him and he’d lost the girl he loved and a baby.
Clasping my hands together, I fought tears. “Can you think of anyone— anyone —who might want to harm Zinnia?”
His reply was to vehemently shake his head. “No, ma’am. Everyone I know of who knew her loved Zinnia. I can’t think of anyone who didn’t like her.”
“Know anything about the alarm system and why the hell it was off, if your pops was guarding something as valuable as werewolf DNA?” Nina asked.
He scratched his head. “You know, when Eve mentioned that, I was shocked. My dad was relentless about security around the vault. We grew up knowing his job was really important, and we were taught to respect what was inside the vault, because it was sacred artifacts of our history.”
“And you can prove you were at school when this happened? I’m not asking because I don’t believe you, Rafe, but I’m sure the council will want to know you have an alibi.”
Rafe nodded once more. “There are security cameras all around campus, and if that isn’t enough, you can check the swipes on my key card at the dorm. They’re recorded.”
“Let me ask you one more thing, and then you should go see your sister. She’s having a really rough time of it right now.”
Nina slapped him on the back. “And you’re welcome to stay here, if you don’t want to go back to Buffalo to the hotel with Eve.”
He looked at Nina, his eyes grateful. “I’m pretty fried, and it’s a really long run. That’s really nice of you, Miss…?”
She smiled. “Just Nina. I’ll go make sure Arch gets a room ready for you.” She rose to find Arch, leaving Wanda and I to finish up.
“Rafe, I know your sister’s relationship was strained with Eve, but what about you? Did you like her? Would there be any reason you can think of for your father to claim he was having an affair?”
“I liked her fine, but I wasn’t around as much as Charmaine. I went off to school right after they got married. I mean, I miss my mom. I miss her a lot, especially considering everything with Zinnia. I really wanted to talk to Mom about it…but Eve was okay. She was always nice to me, and my dad really seemed like he was nuts about her. That’s why none of this makes sense.”
Tell me about it .
Wanda’s soft voice drifted through the room. “Have you heard the recent happenings with your dad, Rafe?”
“You mean his prison break?” His laugh was bitter. “Eve told me about it. I don’t understand anything that’s happened in the last two days. I can hardly wrap my head around any of it. I feel so lost, like the world’s gone crazy and they forgot to send me the memo.”
I gave him a hard hug. “Same, buddy. Same. Listen, why don’t you go upstairs and see Charmaine, grab yourself a shower, and I’ll ask Arch to bring you some dinner.”
He began to rise, his eyes weary, his shoulder slumped. “I’m fine, Mrs. F. I don’t want you to go to any trouble.”
I shooed him toward the stairs. “No trouble at all. Now scoot. Charmaine could use a little TLC.”
As Rafe grabbed his duffel bag and scurried up the stairs, Wanda and I looked at each other. “Another mystery wrapped in a mystery,” she murmured.
I rolled my head on my neck, working out the cricks. I hated to admit it, but I was sore from our little dip in the lake. Maybe I needed to work out more. Or at all.
“So Rafe is the father of Zinnia’s baby. Why is Ron confessing to having an affair with her? What in all of what is happening?”
Wanda brushed a hand over my cheek. “You look exhausted, Marty. Maybe an early night is in order?”
Nina strolled back into the living room, a grin on her lips. “I’d say good idea, because you both look like shit, but Tottington just sent us some pictures you’re gonna wanna see. Seems my man’s got some connections from the old hag he used to work for, and they were able to blow up the pictures of whatever that was that we couldn’t identify at the scene of the crime.”
While yes, Tottington had once been the servant—for lack of a better word—of our favorite accidental witch, Robbie, his primary job was house manager to her mother. An insanely rich, horrible woman who’d stolen from children’s cancer charities. I wasn’t surprised he had connections with some shady folks, and in this particular moment, I was glad.
Whereas a moment ago, I felt like an old dish rag, suddenly I felt invigorated. “Murder basement?”
Nina laughed “After you.”
We all raced down to the basement, where Tottington stood proudly by the big-screen TV. Despite how haggard he looked, he didn’t have a single hair out of place and his suit had nary a wrinkle.
I patted his arm with a weary smile. “Tottington, you look exhausted. We really took you to task today. Go on to bed.”
“I shall, but first, allow me to show you what I’ve discovered.” He pointed to the screen where the pictures of the evidence on the floor were larger than life. “Do you see what I see, Miss?”
My eyes were grainy. I felt like I’d been cutting onions all day long, but I looked at the pictures. “It’s the same stuff we saw before you blew them up. Zinnia’s hair clip, a pen and that dang thing that looks like a quarter.”
He nodded his agreement. “Good job,” he said, as though he were praising a toddler. “But look at the pictures all in a row, and do note the timestamps.”
My eyes went wide. Oh. Oh my.
“Holy cow! The first one has that quarter thing on the floor, but the next one, taken a minute later, doesn’t .” Huh. “So someone moved the quarter thingy. But why? And why didn’t the council police catch that someone on the scene had obviously tampered with the evidence?”
Nina tapped the screen with her index finger. “Because the council police are a bunch a dipshits. So, yeah, why is the right damn question to ask. Maybe it belonged to someone—like the killer someone.”
Wanda squeezed her temples. “So your theory is the killer was in the room and scooped up whatever that is?”
Tottington smiled—a rarity, but he was very pleased with himself. “Indeed, Miss, but do look closely at this next picture.” He pointed one particular picture. “Do you see that?”
I gasped. “I do! It’s got some kind of design on it but I can’t make it out.”
Tottington clicked the heels of his shiny black shoes together. “’Tis indeed a design. I shall research this eve, but I wanted to show you first on the off chance you might have seen it before.”
All three of us shook our heads. “I’ve never seen it before,” Nina said, peering at it closer.
“Neither have I.”
“Then that makes all three of us who’ve never seen it.”
“That’s because you lovely ladies are all newish-paranormals,” my husband said as he came down the stairs, his husky voice settling in my ears. “You didn’t learn the ways of the ancients, one boring fact at a time, until your eyes rolled to the backs of your heads. Count yourselves lucky.”
When he came to stand next to me, putting his arm around my waist, I looked up at him. “Explain yourself, Flaherty.”
He smiled his handsome smile, the grooves on either side of his mouth deepening. “That’s an ancient charm. It was used as a way for enemies to keep their scents disguised. Or maybe the better explanation is it was a way to hide their true origins.”
I scratched my scalp, checking to see if what my darling husband said had flown over the top of my head. “What? Did you have too much of that stinky whiskey with the guys?”
Nina clapped Keegan on the back. “Uh, buddy? Hide their true origins? What is this tomfuckery you speak of?”
Keegan chuckled, deep and low. “It’s true, Mistress of the Night. Back in the day, when everyone was warring with everyone else, some evil genius—we think it was a witch—came up with a way to hide the scent of your species by wearing that talisman. We learned all about it in social studies. I think it was sixth grade?”
“It’s always them damn witches, isn’t it?” Nina joked. “They always got something up their frickin’ sleeves.”
I tugged on his arm. “So anybody who has that can hide their paranormal nature? Anybody ?”
“Only paranormal somebodies, honey. It’s how they infiltrated other camps. It takes on the scent of the opposition.”
“Holy fuck,” Nina crowed. “So you guys used this as a weapon of war?”
Keegan nodded. “I guess so. It was before my time, and I thought they were long gone, so whoever this belongs to, it’s a rare were artifact. Worth a pretty penny. Maybe whoever killed Zinnia was trying to get their hands on this?”
Or maybe someone was trying to hide their true paranormal nature…