Chapter Fifteen
“ Y ou guys mind waiting here in the SUV? I have to grab some things for Charmaine, and I need a minute.”
Nina pulled me into a hard hug, dropping a kiss on the top of my head. “I’m sorry this sucks so hard for you, but I’ll keep trying to figure it out. You go catch your breath, so when you come back you can help me.”
I let out a small sob that sounded raw to my ears. “Thanks, vampire.”
Wanda gathered us into her arms. “Group hug, honey. We love you—so, so much.”
I clenched my eyes tight, thwarting tears. “I love you guys, too.” Pulling from their embrace, I squared my shoulders. “Gimme like fifteen minutes while I hike up my big-girl panties.”
I left them and traipsed over the pathway to the back door of the mansion. Stan had called ahead so the council police, who’d been lying in wait in case Ron showed up, knew I was coming to gather Charmaine’s things.
I punched in the security code I’d typed into my phone, and the door opened with a hush.
All was eerily quiet at the Ellis homestead, but I was thankful for the silence. I didn’t want to talk over what Pearl had shared with Nina and Wanda just yet. I didn’t want to relive her grief for the moment.
I wanted my head to stop spinning.
Heading toward the living room in order to get to the stairs and up to Charmaine’s room, I had to pass a buffet. There, a larger, identical picture to the one Pearl had of the two families together, in a chic black frame, caught my eye.
I paused to stare at it, my stomach churning at how happy they all looked, and how sad I was for all they’d lost.
That was when I saw it.
I picked up the picture, pulling my phone out to use the magnifier app.
No. No way .
My brain went into overdrive, spinning out of control as I tried to piece everything together.
I dropped the photo as if it had burned me, the frame clattering against the buffet, frazzling my nerves as I backed away and ran from the living room.
What I found startled me so much, I ended up in the wrong end of the house, trying to get away from the truth I’d uncovered. One I didn’t understand. Not even a little.
When I reoriented myself, I realized I was back in the kitchen, right near the vault room.
Then I heard, “That’s right, Tobin. Open the vault door like a good boy, and everything’s going to be fine. I was never here, and you don’t remember a thing.”
Tobin? Who was Tobin? A council police officer? Weren’t they supposed to be in charge of guarding the vault?
“I don’t remember a thing,” Tobin repeated, his tone dead and a lot like Ron’s when he talked about killing Zinnia.
The words stopped me cold.
Everything almost clicked, but I still didn’t quite fully comprehend. Swallowing hard, I decided the best course of action was to go get Nina and Wanda.
I dragged my phone from the pocket of my jacket, grateful I’d put it on silent out of respect when we were talking to Pearl.
That was when I saw the text from Wanda.
Oh boy. I was in deep trouble if I didn’t get out of here fast. I began to whisper a speech-to-text back to Wanda. We have to get the pol ? —
“What the hell are you doing here?”
I whirled around, my eyes going wide in surprise.
“Gretchen, is it? What are you doing here?” I tried to keep the tremble out of my voice, but I didn’t succeed.
Wasn’t she the hotel employee who’d served us tea and ignored my question about her origins? Her dark hair was loose around her face, falling softly in light waves as opposed to severely pulled back, her jeans had holes in the knees, which was all the fashion, and a black sweatshirt.
She laughed. Threw her head back and laughed right in my face, jeering at me. “God, all you weres are such idiots. Hey in there!” she yelled, banging on the vault’s foyer door. “We have a guest!”
That was when I smelled her, my nostrils widening and retracting. What the hell kind of paranormal was she?
The door to the vault flew open then, and out strolled the best actress on the face of the planet.
God, did I feel like a complete moron. Yet, as I stared at our killer, I didn’t at all understand how it all happened.
“You just don’t know how to give up, do you, Marty? You’re like a dog with a bone.”
Well, I’d been called worse. She was certainly no match for Nina in terms of insults.
Keep it together, Flaherty .
I straightened my spine. Nina would be so proud because I was shaking in my Cole Haan’s. This woman had killed someone. Killed. Someone . Yes, I’d been in the company of a few killers in my time, but it had been a long time since I was in their company and alone .
“I’d ask what brings you here, but I think I know.”
She giggled, a light tinkle of sound, as she lifted a hand to push her auburn hair from her face, and my suspicions were confirmed.
Eve. Yep. If you didn’t already guess, Eve was our killer and how she’d done it, hit me smack in the face.
Eve had a bracelet around her wrist, and on that bracelet was the talisman Keegan had told us about last night.
“Have you put it all together, Marty?”
Before I could shut my wayward mouth, I whispered in horror, “It was you. You killed Zinnia.”
Eve let out a ragged sigh, one that was intentional, to let me know she was aggravated. “And?”
“ Why ?” I croaked. “Why would you kill Zinnia? Why are you doing this at all?”
“You don’t owe her an explanation, Eve, for Christ’s sake!” Gretchen snarled, moving toward me. “I’ll take her out, you get the goods.”
Take me out? I felt like she didn’t mean on a date. But hold the phone. Why was I cowering? I was half were. I could probably take her if I just knew what the heck she was. Her scent wasn’t one I recognized. I wondered about it at Eve’s hotel, but I still couldn’t place it. She had a scent I’d never encountered before.
I didn’t want to get into something I might not survive because my strategy was all wrong. I had to know what kind of ammunition to use.
Feeling far bolder than was warranted, I leaned toward Gretchen and took a long whiff. “ What are you ?”
She gave me the finger, her softly fringed eyes flashing her hatred. “Why the hell do you care?”
I heard the anger in her tone; she seethed vitriol, so maybe it was a species thing? We have our fair share of bigotry among all the species. Or maybe it was a grudge against werewolves?
Whatever Gretchen was, I’d lay bets Eve was the same thing, and that talisman on her bracelet had kept her true nature hidden from Ron. But to what end? And how did that connect to Ron confessing to killing Zinnia and having an affair with her?
And how did Gretchen fit into this? Another burning question needing an answer. I tried to stall by holding up a hand. “Wait!” I yelped, looking to Eve. “Just hold on a minute. Don’t you think, after all this, I at least deserve an explanation?”
Eve held up her hand at Gretchen, her expression soft. “Take it easy, my love. She’s probably right. And we don’t have to kill her. Do you know how many werewolves alone would hunt us down and rip us to shreds? Why is that always your go-to anyway? So violent.”
I snickered without thinking. “I have one of those friends, too. Always choosing violence. Do you have any idea how exhausting it is, keeping her in check?” I flapped a hand, taking a step back. “What am I saying? Of course you do. You have your very own Nina in Miss Gretchen.”
Eve smiled, slow and wide. “Gretchen is my girlfriend, and what I love best about her is her fierce nature. She’s like that in all aspects of her life, if you know what I mean…”
Ahem.
But hold on a sec. “But you’re married to Ron,” I said, feeling stupid once I let the words fly from my lips. Like that mattered even a little bit in the scheme of something like murder.
She nibbled at the tip of her shiny fingernail, her eyes coy. “I am, and it was my cross to bear, until I almost couldn’t bear it any longer. Thankfully, a buyer came along and solved all my problems. Now Gretchen and I can ride off into the sunset—richer than God, of course.”
Whoa. As fast as I tried to put it together, my brain flat-out refused to help. “A buyer…”
The second she opened her mouth to tell me was the moment the answer came to me. We both replied in unison.
“Werewolf DNA.”
She clapped her hands in my direction as I backed up farther, until I felt the kitchen counter against my back, Eve’s smile maliciously gleeful. “Yes! Bravo, Marty. Well done, you. I married Ron, endured countless days and nights of drudgery with him and his snotty daughter, just to get close enough to the vault so I could get my hands on the werewolf DNA when the time was right.”
I fought a gasp. Diabolical had nothing on her. This wasn’t someone who was out-of-control evil. This was a sociopath. Calm, cool, collected, and not a shred of empathy. Or was that a psychopath?
Does it really matter, Marty?
“Aren’t you the little trooper?” I drawled. “But why did you have to kill Zinnia? Why would you want to end the life of someone so wonderful?”
She sighed with a long breath, her eyes feigning sadness. “Why, indeed? Wrong place, wrong time. She happened in here when I was literally talking Ron into putting the DNA in my hot little hands. Ron had given it to me willingly, and she walked in on us. And well, Gretchen chose violence. Our choices were few. It’s sad, though, isn’t it, considering the baby…”
I blinked, my legs shaking, my adrenaline on high. “So why didn’t you just take it and run?”
She lifted her chin. “It was a chaotic moment. It all happened so quickly, I guess we panicked.” Eve shrugged then, as though none of this was at all horrifying.
I balled my fist. I wanted to choose violence, and I wanted to choose it in the way of knocking her right in the chops, wiping that smug smile off her pretty face.
Now the question was, how? How had she gotten Ron to hand over the werewolf DNA?
That’s when a kernel of something hit me right between the eyes. Charmaine had said she couldn’t think when she was around Eve, because she made her so angry…but was that why?
Armand said Ron was so besotted by Eve, he was speechless sometimes.
What paranormal profile did that fit? And how much time did I have left to figure it out?
I decided to keep her talking until I could find the answer, or reach the knives in a butcher block behind me. I didn’t know what kind of paranormal Eve was, or if a knife would kill her, but I wasn’t above giving it a shot.
“So, you’re not were.” I pointed to her bracelet. “You have the talisman to disguise your scent. How’d you get your greedy little hands on that?”
She ran her thumb under it, smiling, the upturn of her lips slow and evil. “You know your werewolf history. Well done again, and let’s just say, there was a man who couldn’t resist my charms . He’s gone now, but his memory lives on—on my wrist, that is.”
Resist her charms . It was on the tip of my tongue. I swear, if I got out of this alive, I was going to read up on every brand of paranormal to ever exist.
Until then… “So you stole the talisman, married Ron, killed Zinnia. Was it you who ran us off the road?”
Gretchen raised her hand, her eyes dancing, her grin maniacal. “That was me. I thought you were all werewolves and you’d drown. My bad, but you guys can really swim, can’t you? That doggie paddle was impressive as hell.”
Couldn’t she smell Nina--and Wanda, for that matter? What kind of paranormal didn’t have a superior sense of smell? Think, Marty. Think.
“You couldn’t smell Nina was a vampire and Wanda is a mixed breed?”
Eve chuckled, that tinkling laugh I’d once thought so cute, now made me want to grab her by the hair and drag her from one end of the house to the other. “Our sense of smell isn’t one of our loftier traits.”
So Eve had a minion/girlfriend. Had she used her charms on her, too? I ignored Gretchen and looked at Eve. “Who was that at Pearls? That wasn’t Gretchen. Someone almost knocked me out and it smelled like a male. What were they looking for?”
Eve scoffed, rolling up the sleeves of her sweater. “Just another man I charmed to keep track of you three idiots. He’s long gone…”
Charmed. There was that word again. Who charms people to do their dirty work?
It hit me like a Louisville slugger. Charming people was a nice way of saying she manipulated them.
I’d heard of them, but I’d never encountered one. However, I knew of them because of Esther, our accidental mermaid.
Sirens .
Holy murdering sirens. That explains why both Wanda and I had headaches when we left her hotel. We were sensitive to all manner of things. Maybe some of her charms had unwittingly seeped out when we were investigating her?
I don’t know. I only knew, Eve and Gretchen were sirens—capable of making you do whatever they wanted you to do. It explained why Ron answered questions so robotically. It explained why poor Tobin, whoever he was, was agreeing to do Eve’s bidding.
Nina had been close with the hypnotizing thing.
Sweet baby Jesus and a mind reader.
So here’s where things were going to get crazy real. How did you fight someone who didn’t have to lay a finger on you? Someone who could slip into your mind and make you do whatever they wanted?
Pretending I wasn’t scared half out of my mind, I set my purse on the counter behind me, crossing my arms over my chest.
“And here we are. Where do we go from here, Eve? What’s left to say? Are you going to kill me, too? Bash me in the head with a statue? Because as you said and I can promise you, if not my pack, my friends won’t rest until they find who killed me. They’ll hunt you down like the rat you are.”
Eve rolled her eyes in dramatic fashion with a wrinkle of her nose. “Ugh. That was so messy. I told you. I didn’t have time to charm Zinnia. I had to act fast, but Gretchen took control. Zinnia was a goof I never meant to happen, but it was easy enough to convince Ron to claim he’d killed Zinnia to protect Charmaine. God, I hate that child. She’s so much work.”
Ah. But how did Charmaine see Zinnia’s hair clip on the floor? “Charmaine thinks she killed Zinnia, too, Eve. How can that be?” I kept my tone as even as possible, but inside, my stomach churned like a vat of butter.
“I was a very busy girl that day, I tell you. I had to charm not only Pearl and Harris, Ron, and of course Armand. But Charmaine? She happened in here, looking for Zinnia. I guess when I finally got to her little pea brain, I was tired. Maybe my charms were, too. Who knows, and who cares? She’ll never figure it out—and neither will your stupid friends!”
Eve had been so calm up to this point, but she was growing agitated, and I was growing terrified. I didn’t know what to do next.
But then there was the question of Zinnia’s pregnancy. “Why did you make Ron believe he’d had an affair with Zinnia? Surely you knew that would be a motive for you to have killed her.”
Her eyebrow lifted and she winked. “I didn’t know a single thing about Rafe and Zinnia, and I wouldn’t have cared if I did. But when that pig Stan Freemont told me she was pregnant, I thought they might believe Ron killed her to keep from telling me. It was a fifty-fifty shot. A chance I was willing to take.”
“You’ve really woven some web, Eve. Kudos. So what happens next? How do you end up in a jail cell for the rest of your eternity?”
Those knives I mentioned? Gretchen lunged for them, snatching one up before I could stop her.
“Gretchen, stop! Put it down, my love. I’ve got this,” Eve whispered. “You can have her afterward. I get the feeling she won’t be as easily wooed. But let me play a little first.”
Gretchen rubbed her hands together in obvious joy. “Anything for you, babe.”
“ Marty .”
My name floated in the air like a note to a song. Soft and gentle, it instantly had me transfixed. Who was saying my name so lyrically?
You know who’s saying your name. Fight this, Marty. Fight!
My head instantly emptied. Every question I had, every fear, gone. As though someone had snatched if off my neck and emptied it into a garbage bin.
“Yes?” I answered back, almost against my will. Then I frowned.
I saw Eve’s lips move. “Listen to me. I’m going to finish what I started in the vault, and you’re going to wait here for me to come back. Do you understand? Say you understand.”
The fuzz in my head prevented me from doing anything but what I was told. And I knew I was doing something I didn’t want to do, but I was helpless to resist. With a nod, I said, “I understand.”
Eve touched my hand then. I was semi-aware of her fingertips on my skin, but I couldn’t move much, and I was aware I couldn’t move much, but I couldn’t move, you know?
The next moments are a complete blur. I remember Eve and Gretchen leaving the kitchen to go to the vault. I remember feeling infuriatingly stuck.
Looking back, I don’t know what I could have done differently. I felt weak-minded, feeble, incapable of saving myself from whatever fate she had in store for me.
But then I heard someone call out—the most important person in the world to me. Maybe the only person in the world who could penetrate this godawful haze.
“Mom?”