“My parents could both use magic. They were a lot like Ms. Poole. They were good at it. They ran the library before me. It was a whole family thing.”

  Lady bit her bottom lip. He had paused again, like he was debating over how much to share. She didn’t want to pry, but he had her curious now. “What happened?” she asked. “I mean, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to,” she added quickly.

  “No, it’s fine. I brought it up.” Crispin shot her a weak smile before turning back to the road. “To make a long story short, I was a letdown. I was their first kid and I had no magical ability whatsoever, so…” He shrugged. “They left me with the house and the library and… Well, they’re traveling right now. They had another son. Giles. That’s my younger brother. He’s great. Smart, powerful. They’re trying to expose him to other cultures, other systems of magic. They’ve been gone for a while.”

  “That sounds super interesting. You didn’t want to go with them?”

  “I wasn’t invited,” said Crispin and Lady felt stupid for even asking. “Besides, someone has to keep the library going. I like the work, so…” He seemed to realize things were getting sort of maudlin. “My point is that my aunt has sort of been like… She’s family. I’m closer to her than I am to my parents. Dom too, but that’s not really relevant. Ms. Poole is… It’s hard to tell how she feels about a person, but I think she likes you. I can’t say for sure, but I think she does.”

  “Thanks,” said Lady. She smiled at him, though she wasn’t sure he saw it. “Maybe you’re right.”

  ***

  As per usual, Shannon was at the reception desk when they arrived at the police station. She had her hair up in a bun and a stylish polka-dot dress on. She was also wearing glasses, though Lady couldn’t recall her ever having a need for them. “You look nice,” Lady said in way of greeting, coming up to the counter and leaning against it.

  Shannon looked up, smiling brightly when she saw who it was. “Lady!” She turned her smile to Crispin next. “And Crispin! Oh, it’s so nice to see you both.” She smoothed down the front of her dress. “You like it? I’m trying a more professional look.”

  Lady wasn’t sure how “professional” it was. A bun and glasses didn’t make a hemline that high professional no matter how you sliced it. “You look great,” she said anyway, skirting the question with a compliment. It was the truth. She did look good.

  “Well, you’re looking lovely yourself,” said Shannon even though Lady was wearing the same shorts and t-shirt she had worn the day before. She hadn’t even washed it. “But you always look adorable. Doesn’t she Crispin?” She turned to Crispin with a wink that suggested she had heard something about them setting up a date. Lady wasn’t sure how she knew, but it was obvious that she did.

  Crispin’s face turned very red very fast. “I think Conners is expecting us?” he prompted instead.

  Shannon rolled her eyes playfully. “Let me call back.” She turned in her chair and picked up the phone to her left.

  “You do look nice,” Crispin said under his breath and without looking at Lady directly.

  Lady felt a smile creep onto her lips. “Thanks,” she said, keeping her voice down as well. “You don’t look so bad yourself.”

  Shannon hung up the phone and turned to the front. “You can go on back,” she said with a wink.

  Crispin didn’t wait for her to finish speaking before he headed in that direction. It was plain to see that she was making him uncomfortable. Lady followed behind him, not too worried about the extra attention herself. It seemed like Shannon was happy for them—even if that happiness was a little premature.

  She looked around as they walked to the back of the police station. She tried to spot Lawrence, but there appeared to only be one officer at a desk and it wasn’t him. No big surprise there. He could be on patrol or he could be off today. She could always ask Conners. He might not give her an answer, but she could ask.

  Crispin knocked on the door. “Come in,” said Conners’ voice from the other side.

  The inside of the office was as small as it always was. Conners’ desk was shoved in the corner. He was sitting behind it, his hands folded in front of him. The professional image he was trying to project was ruined a little by the mental image Lady had of him trying to negotiate his way out from behind the desk. “Good morning,” she said with a wide smile.

  Conners frowned back at her. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m happy to see you too.” Lady proceeded on to one of the chairs in front of Conners’ desk and sat herself down.

  “I only asked Crispin to come.”

  “Yeah, well, I tagged along,” said Lady, stating the obvious.

  “I can see that. Why did you come along?”

  “I have valuable information for you.”

  Conners turned his gaze to Crispin as he sat down in the chair beside her. He shrugged helplessly. “She wanted to come, so I picked her up. Sorry. Is it a problem?”

  Conners sighed without answering him explicitly. “What valuable information do you have?”

  “What kind of employee is Lawrence?” Lady asked, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms over her chest.

  “That’s not valuable information,” Conners said, like it needed pointing out. “That’s a question.”

  “Are you going to answer it?”

  “No,” said Conners plainly. “Are you going to tell me why you need to know?”

  Lady supposed she shouldn’t be surprised to meet a little resistance. You didn’t just hand out information about your employees. “I had a kind of vision,” she explained. “It led me to Lawrence’s house.”

  Conners raised an eyebrow. “You went to his house?”

  “His daughter is working at the library now,” Lady said, like that explained everything. “I gave her a ride home when her car broke down. She’s nice. We’re basically friends now.”

  “Okay,” Conners said slowly, hinting strongly that she had gotten off topic.

  “Anyway.” Lady pushed on before he could kick her out of his office. “In my vision, there was a police car, right?”

  “If you say so.”

  “There was. So, yeah. Later on that night we all did a ritual with Dom.”

  “Who’s ‘we’?”

  She motioned to Crispin. “Him, me, Otsuya, and Destiny. And, you know, Dom. He was there too.”

  “I assumed.”

  “So, we did a ritual and I had another kind of vision. I got led to that old bait shop by the marina, the one that’s closed down. I saw…” She paused for effect. “The same police cruiser.”

  Conners sat up a little straighter in his seat. He frowned thoughtfully. “Was someone in it?”

  “Yes, but I couldn’t tell—”

  “Wait,” Conners held up the pen in his hand, cutting her off. “You had a vision. So, you didn’t really see a police car.”

  “I really saw a police car,” Lady said firmly. “Just, you know, not a corporeal one.”

  “An incorporeal police cruiser.”

  “Like I said, it was a vision. It was, like, made of light or something.”

  “Or something?”

  Lady was getting tired of this back and forth. “I don’t know what visions are made of! I’m new to all this stuff. Can I finish?”

  Conners gestured grandly with his pen. “By all means.”

  “Good, so…” Lady trailed off, having some trouble remembering where she was in the story.

  “You saw someone in the police car,” Crispin prompted softly.

  “Right! So, I saw someone in the car. They were in the back, but I couldn’t see who it was. The windows were tinted.”

  Conners tilted his head. “I thought we were talking about a spectral police car.”

  Lady had been hoping for no more questions from him until she was finished. “We are, but—I don’t know! I told you. I don’t know how this stuff works. It was weird. The point is, I couldn’t see who it was in the back.” She saw Conners open his mouth to ask another question. She continued before he could get a chance, speaking quickly. “I was trying to figure out who it was I was looking at when I saw another spectral person coming toward the car.”

  “And then?” asked Conners when she paused for a breath.

  “That’s about it. Everything vanished after that, and I called Dom to pick me up. I’d kind of wandered away from the group by accident.”

  Conners nodded. Lady could tell that he wasn’t wowed by what she had told him. He was trying to be polite by not saying as much. Not that he was someone who would be too worried about hurting her feelings. “I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do with that information.”

  “Well, first of all, I feel like there are some things we can extrapolate from what I saw.” Lady had been thinking about it for a while. She only felt more confident about her initial suspicions. “I definitely think Chad was murdered. And I don’t think he died on his boat. I think he was trapped in the back of Lawrence’s police cruiser. That’s why he was missing for so long. He was trapped there when the day started. The sun came out after a while and… well.”

  Conners raised an eyebrow. He didn’t look wholly convinced, but he did seem intrigued. “Were there any signs you saw in this vision of yours that he was trying to escape?”

  “No,” said Lady. “I didn’t see many details, but there weren’t any that I noticed. But, I was thinking, you did say there were drugs in his system. I figure there’s a good chance he was completely out of it for a while there. Maybe when he did come to he was already delirious with heat exhaustion.”

  Conners nodded. It wasn’t that he was agreeing with her, but it said a lot that he was still considering her theory. “That sounds like a possibility. That could have happened.”

  “So, what about Lawrence?” Lady lowered her voice and leaned forward. “What can you tell me about him?”

  Conners shot Lady a warning look. “I can’t tell you anything about him. Like I said, I’m his boss. I’ll… I’ll look into this on my own.”

  Lady should have seen that coming. She really should have seen it coming after he had denied her answers the first time. Supplying him with information didn’t mean he owed her information back. “I can still help you with this, though.”

  “I can’t condone that officially,” Conners warned.

  “So… unofficially, why don’t you tell me a little bit about this guy?”

  “I’m going to have a hard enough time investigating this on my own,” Conners said, sounding a little impatient. “I appreciate the information. I really do. But unless you have hard evidence for me to use… I’m going to have to pursue this carefully.”

  “All the more reason to use us.” Lady was pushing her luck and she knew it. “We can look into this stuff unofficially.” She gave him a wink.

  “What can we do to help?” she asked Conners before things got out of hand.

  Conners took a deep breath, steepling his fingers in front of his face. His brow furrowed as he considered the question. “Do you have any other reason why you think Lawrence is involved?” he asked, looking squarely at Lady. “Something concrete I can use?”

  Lady wanted to tell him that she did. She went over the question several times in her head even though she already knew the answer. “No,” she was finally forced to admit with a sigh. “But I have some suspicions!”

  “Are there any of those that you haven’t told me?” asked Conners.

  Lady considered what she had divulged to him already. “Well, I told you we went to Agnes’ house—as in the Emmerich house.”

  “Yes, I inferred that.”

  “They have a son,” she continued. “Ben.”

  Conners nodded. He clearly knew this information as well. He wanted her to get on with it.

  “He was high when we got there, I think. I don’t know what he was on, but Agnes didn’t seem surprised by it. I figure he does drugs regularly. That’s why she wanted to get home, I think. Maybe that’s when he normally gets home. She wanted to stop him.” It was sort of sad to think about, but Lady had lived with addicts while she was in the system. Usually it was the older kids. She had never made an effort to stop them, but Agnes probably cared a great deal more about her own brother. “Chad had drugs in his system, right? I don’t know if the two are connected, but…” She trailed off, letting Conners take the thought from there.

  “I’ve met Ben Emmerich before,” said Conners. “He’s been arrested for possession a couple of times. I was never the arresting officer, but I met him when they brought him down to the station. I’ve seen the paperwork.”

  “You’re allowed to tell us this but not anything about Lawrence?” Lady wasn’t sure why she asked him that, but she felt compelled to.

  “It’s a matter of public record,” Conners said plainly.

  “Well, was it the same type of substance Chad had in his system?”

  “Now that I can’t tell you.”

  “Oh come on.”

  “I’m sorry, but I need to get back to work. I appreciate you coming to me with all of this. I really do. I can promise you that I’ll look into it. As soon as there is something I can tell you, I will.” Conners nodded to the door. “Now, if you would give me a moment alone with Crispin here, I would appreciate it. There are some things I need to speak with him about.” That was the entire reason he’d asked him to come down to the station, after all.

  Lady stood, albeit reluctantly. “Fine,” she sighed, making her way to the door. “I’ll be waiting out front.” It wasn’t like she had much of a choice. Crispin had given her a ride, after all.”

  “Go talk with Shannon,” suggested Conners. “I’m sure the two of you can find something to talk about. It’ll help pass the time.”

  Ah ha. Lady went out the door with a little more enthusiasm. Clever. Conners couldn’t answer her questions, but Shannon would likely have no such reservations.

  “Hey, there.” Lady came around the corner and leaned against the front desk.

  Shannon looked up, startled. She had a phone to her ear. “Uh huh,” she said into the receiver. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Sorry,” Lady whispered, quickly lowering her voice. She waited until Shannon was off the phone before continuing. “You got a minute to talk?”

  Shannon glanced over at the phone on her desk and then back to Lady. “Is something wrong?”

  Maybe she was a little too eager to talk. “No, I just thought we could chat. I’m waiting on Crispin to finish up. You know how it is. I don’t mean to take up a bunch of your time if you’re busy. I don’t want to be a bother.”

  Shannon smiled. “Oh, you could never be a bother,” she said, like Lady knew she would. She motioned her around the desk. “Come on back here. Pull a chair from the waiting area.”

  Lady did just that. She plopped down across from Shannon. “Busy day?” They were sitting close enough that she was able to lower her voice considerably. She didn’t want the rest of the station overhearing their conversation.

  Shannon shrugged. “It’s an average day, all things considered.”

  “I figured you’d have your hands full. You know… What with the murder and all.”

  “You’d think, but no. Most of that goes through Conners. My work load is actually a little lighter when there’s a lot going on.”

  Lady wondered if things were supposed to be that way or if Conners simply didn’t trust Shannon with that sort of thing. “So, you like your job a lot, huh?” It was a weird segue, but she went with it anyway.

  “Oh, I love my job,” Shannon assured her. She reached for a clear plastic cup full of some thick, green liquid. She sipped it through a straw for a moment before stopping with an alarmed look. “I’m sorry! Do you want something to drink? It’s sweltering out there. I can get you something from the—”

  “I’m fine,” Lady said quickly, partly because she didn’t want to waste the time she had and partly because she didn’t want to risk Shannon coming back with something green. “I know you’re close with Conners, but are you close to any of your other coworkers?”

  “Hmm?” Shannon looked around the office as she sipped her drink. There wasn’t anyone else around, but she took in her bearings anyway. “Some of them. Well, a lot of them.” Her smile returned. “I don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty popular around here. I try to do things for them, you know? I organize all the birthdays and parties and sometimes I bring goodies.” She winked at Lady. “The secret to popularity is food, and I know all the good places in town.”

  She was the mayor’s wife and considerably wealthy due to a sizable inheritance. The reason she worked as a receptionist wasn’t because she needed the paycheck. Lady wouldn’t be surprised if she poured that income back into the station through extravagant snacks. “Did you know that Crispin recently hired on someone at the library?”

  Shannon’s smile fell and her expression darkened. “I know. It’s tragic.”

  “Oh! No, not Chad. I mean… He did hire Chad, but… No, this is someone else. Agnes. Agnes Emmerich?”

  “Emmerich.” Shannon took another thoughtful sip of her drink. “Oh, Lawrence’s girl! I’ve met her a couple of times. I don’t know her that well, mind you, but she seems like a doll.”

  “She’s nice,” Lady agreed hurriedly. “I was actually at her place last night. We’ve really hit it off, I think.” Lady made sure to really lower her voice for what she had to say next. “Do you know if everything is all right there? At the Emmerich household?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Shannon, following Lady’s lead and dropping her voice down to a near-whisper.

  “I don’t know.” Lady made an effort to seem as well-meaning as possible. “When I got there… Well, her brother seemed a little off, and then her mother and father got into a fight. They didn’t know I was there, but still.”

 

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