“We think it might be an excommunicated witch,”
Costa said.
Relief flooded her face. “Of course. Such a thing is possible.”
“Will you help us get the information we need?” I asked.
“I’ll do what I can,” she said, then quickly added, “but you have to keep this between us. I could lose my position for helping you without being authorized first.”
I frowned. “How long would authorization take?”
She laughed, a light musical sound. “Somewhere between forever and never. There’s no way the Covenant will authorize me to share this kind of information with the police. There’s always the small chance that it’ll be a Covenant member and they’d never willingly let anything like that come out publicly.”
She was taking a big risk for us, but I couldn’t for the life of me ask her not to. This was too important. Elaine’s life was on the line. “How big of a list do you think it would be?”
Her forehead scrunched up as she thought about my question. “Excommunicated members? There are very few—even fewer who could pull something like this off.
I’d guess less than five. Maybe only one or two that I can think of off the top of my head. I’ll have to do some research.” She took a deep breath and let it out in a rush.
“Now current Covenant members…probably a dozen or two on the continent.”
“Could a group of witches pull this off?” I didn’t want to expand our potentials list, but I had to make sure we didn’t miss the real perp just because we concentrated on the easy-to-track suspects.
“Maybe. But you’d still need to have a strong witch leading them. And he or she would need to have a lot of Covenant knowledge.” She chewed on the inside of her lip. “No. I think we should start with the potentials we already discussed. This kind of scheme, it doesn’t seem like something a group of mediocre witches—even with a well-educated one in the group—could pull off. The burnings, yes, without a doubt. But the power-twisting… no. I just don’t see it.”
I hated to ask it—the man was ridiculously powerful— but I had to. “Councilor Koslov. When did he get into town?”
She considered it for a moment. “Yes, I’ll admit the timing fits, but the talent doesn’t.”
“What do you mean?” I sat down in one of the chairs across from Natalie, conscious of Costa at my back.
“I mean Viktor could probably do it, given enough time and a good stash of ingredients, but it’s unlikely. Most witches, Covenant especially, have a strength in one or two elements. They tend to nurture those powers, sometimes completely ignoring the rest. Viktor isn’t a true slouch in any element—he couldn’t be, as a council member. But his strength is in water. He couldn’t pull off that sort of burning easily even if he wanted to.” She tapped her index finger against her lips.
“How much time would he need?”
She frowned and dropped her hand to her lap. “Days, probably.”
“When do you think you’ll have a list for us?” Costa asked, and my chair back flexed under his grip, his long fingers only inches from my back.
Natalie grimaced. “A day or two. I’ll have to reach out to some sources—discreetly. This isn’t the kind of information we keep in a database somewhere.”
My heart dropped, but I nodded and pushed up from my chair. I held out my hand and Natalie shook it. Costa walked to the office door and held it open for me.
“Thank you so much for your help. Finding my sister before her power is—” My voice cracked and Natalie nodded.
“I understand. I’ll be in touch.”
“I think we should go talk to the head of campus security again,” I said when we reached my car, which was parked a good distance from Natalie’s building. My refusal to pay for more than street parking had lost me many a calorie.
Besides, it didn’t seem fair to ask her to validate a parking ticket on top of risking her career to help us.
I half expected Costa to argue, or to ask if I had other reasons for wanting to talk to the man again, but he didn’t.
Instead he nodded and said, “Good idea. Something about him was off.”
“Exactly. He was sweating in a cold room. And these guys, whoever they are, have a history of paying people off to get what they want. The warehouse in St. Louis where the succubus was held that you rescued? They paid a low- level vamp to rent that under the table. And the video footage that disappeared from the Target store where some of the burned remains were found, that was likely a payoff, too.” I turned the car on and pulled into traffic.
“True. It would be a helluva lot easier to pay someone off to delete the footage and destroy any backups than to do some magical mumbo jumbo to get rid of it.” As I made a turn, Costa’s hand flew up to grip the ceiling and I grinned.
“Is it just my driving that bothers you, or other drivers in general?”
He glanced at me before his eyes moved back to the road.
I snickered and made another turn. “So, if someone is paying to have things made easier, and to make things disappear, it only stands to reason that they paid to have the video footage disappear from the library, too.”
“But they could have paid off someone in security,”
Costa pointed out.
“True. But the security guy seemed nervous.”
He nodded and we rode in silence for the next few minutes.
“About last night—”
“We don’t need to talk about last night,” I snapped, and then made a right turn, harder than I strictly needed to.
“I just don’t want you to think that’s something I do normally.” He glanced at me, and something in my expression made him frown. “And I don’t think it’s something you do, either.”
“I’m a succubus, remember? I thought you’d already decided I feed my tastes wherever and whenever I please,”
I said bitterly.
“I made some assumptions about you—hell, Marisol, I’m sorry for that. But I have my reasons. I already apologized. Are you going to punish me for it for the rest of the damned case?”
I chewed on the inside of my lip, searching for the right response. There didn’t seem to be one. “I’m not punishing you. I just think that we both know that kissing was a bad idea. Let’s just drop it, okay?” I made a hard left, but Costa’s tight grip on the dash had lost its humor for me.
“Whatever you say.” He turned to look out his window.
We drove in silence the last few minutes to Natalie’s.
When I parked, I could almost see the tension melt from Costa’s body, and I frowned.
I was a perfectly good driver.
We walked to the security office, and I glanced at the clock above the front desk. It read two. I grimaced.
No lunch. Again. As if signaled, my stomach twisted in annoyance.
We walked down the hall, and I found myself moving lightly, with Costa far more reserved at my back. The idea of nailing the security guy to the wall—for helping someone kidnap my sister, no less—filled me with delight.
I rapped on the glazed glass on the head of security’s door, and then opened it without waiting for a response.
The man sat behind his big desk, an angry scowl on his face for our rude entrance. He looked up and met my smile, and his expression lightened. Then he saw Costa behind me, and something like fear danced across his face before the scowl returned.
“I’m sorry but I can’t help you people right now. I have shift schedules for the next month that I have to finish.
You’ll need to schedule an appointment and come back.”
Costa shut the door behind us, and the door clanked loudly as it hit. Donovan started at the noise.
The squirrely man’s face suddenly enraged me, and the bit of excitement I’d felt at having a lead in Elaine’s disappearance was swept away. “Where is my sister, you son of a bitch?”
His mouth dropped open. I strode around the desk, grabbed the front of his shirt, and shook him. “Where is she?” What right did he have to walk free while she was being held somewhere, scared and maybe hurt? My blood boiled, and I yelled questions at him faster than he could answer.
Hard hands gripped my shoulders and yanked me off the weasel. I fought them, until Costa turned me around to face him. “You wait over there,” he said quietly, and nodded to the door.
Numbness replaced the anger, and I pulled free of Costa’s grip and walked around the desk, back stiff. My professional facade had failed me. Tears burned my eyes and throat.
“We’re here to talk about the money, Donovan.”
Costa’s voice was hard.
I kept my face as emotionless as I could. We didn’t have a money trail on Donovan, but he didn’t know that.
Donovan shifted in his seat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you’re going to have to—”
“The money they paid you to get rid of the security footage. The money they paid you to lie to us. The money they paid you to help them kidnap a young woman,” Costa said, ignoring Donovan’s splutters. “You are going to tell us everything you know right now. Or you and I are going to go somewhere more private to talk.” Costa leaned over the man.
Donovan cringed as his gaze met Costa’s. And suddenly he pushed back, trying to scoot his chair away while never taking his eyes off the OWEA agent. “No— you can’t—”
Costa slapped his palm onto Donovan’s desk. “Tell us about the money!”
“Fine!” Donovan screeched. “Fine, I’ll tell you!”
Costa stood straight and crossed his arms.
“A big guy came in and threatened me if I didn’t help him. And…”
“Yes?” Costa said.
“He offered me the money, too. But that’s not why I did it. He was a scary guy.” His eyes darted to me, but he didn’t change his story. Apparently impressing me was slightly less important than not pissing off Costa. “I was worried for my life; you have to believe me!”