Hot Trick (A Detective Shelley Caldwell Novel) (21 page)

The longer Silke went without hearing from her twin, the more worry ate at her.

C’mon, Shell, pick up,
she entreated to no avail.

Only she didn’t think Shelley was ignoring her. Some kind of interference kept them from mind-meld status. Interference of the magical sort. She tried Shelley’s cell but no soap there, either, so she left a message for her twin to call as soon as she heard it.

Instinct warned her that something was dreadfully wrong. Having long ago learned to trust her own instincts, Silke knew she had to get to Illusions before the club closed. Though it had a 4:00 a.m. liquor license, it was already a few minutes before three.

Still wearing Shelley’s clothes, she was ready to roll. But when she went to fetch the car keys from the kitchen, she realized she wasn’t the only one awake.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Sighing, she faced her mother, who sat at the kitchen table in the dark. “I’m going after Shelley.”

“You’ll ruin her cover.”

“Someone may already have done that,” Silke said, drawing close enough she could feel the worry coming off her mother like a tidal wave. “I can’t scare her up.”

“She’s not picking up her cell?”

“You know what I mean, Mom, so stop pretending we’re just normal daughters, okay?”

Silence hung between them. Was her mother going to pretend some more? She’d done a good job of it since Silke’s father had died.

In a shaky voice, Mom said, “You can’t go alone.”

“I have to or no one will talk to me.”

“You’re taking backup or you’re not leaving this house.”

There was the Mom she knew.

“All right. But they take their own car and they observe from a distance.”

Mom nodded and Silke sighed her relief. She bent to kiss her mother’s cheek and was a little surprised to feel arms wind around her.

“I love you girls with all my heart, you know, even if I’m not like you.”

“I know, Mom, I know. Just like we love you.”

Her mother’s last words stayed with her as Silke drove like her twin—fast.

Even if I’m not like you…

She could have said
even if you’re not like me.

A small difference, but an important one to Silke. All her life she’d felt different. Too different to get a handle on what she wanted, who she wanted to be. She’d envied her twin. Shelley had always had an identity. She was a cop down to her very soul. Silke had spent her whole life exploring, and only recently had things started to make sense.

As she approached the club, she glanced at the rearview mirror. The unmarked car still followed. Giving her car keys to a valet hiker, she took her receipt and went inside, glancing over her shoulder once to make sure her backup was on the move behind her.

As usual, the place rocked in the early morning hours. Waving to a couple of people she knew, Silke was perturbed when they didn’t wave back. Then she realized being dressed in Shelley’s clothing made her a stranger to them.

She cut through the crowd, her gaze seeking her twin. She checked everywhere. The dance floor, the bars, the restroom. No Shelley. Just when she was about to give up, she spotted a brooding Casey Brogan sitting in a corner with a half-empty beer mug in hand.

Storming toward him, she demanded, “What are you doing here alone? Why aren’t you with Shelley?”

“So it’s the sister is it?” Brogan moaned. “Not good.”

“What’s not good? What happened?”

“When I last saw her, about half an hour past, your sister was crossing the dance floor, coming toward me.” Brogan shook his head. “When I looked again, she was going out the back exit.”

“And you let her go?”

“She asked no permission, she just went. I took after her, but it took some doing getting through the crowd. By the time I got in the alley, she’d vanished. I’ve been waiting here since, but she hasn’t shown her lovely face.”

Silke felt as if her heart were suddenly encased in ice. Something had happened to Shelley. That’s why she wasn’t answering! She grabbed Brogan’s arm and pulled him from his chair and through the bar.

“Which exit?” When he pointed to it, she tugged him across the dance floor.

One glance over her shoulder assured her the two cops assigned to her were on duty. They looked stuffy and uncomfortable trying to blend in with this crowd, but they didn’t let her out of their sight.

Once in the alley, the atmosphere got to her, spreading the chill from her middle to her fingers and toes.

Brogan confirmed her conclusion. “There’s been magic here this night.”

Silke moved cautiously, looking for signs. The pavement glimmered as if it were alive. She stooped for a closer look. Brogan crouched down too, and reached out a hand. She grabbed him by the wrist.

“Don’t touch it. It’s powder from a spell.”

A spell used on Shelley? She never should have let her sister come here alone. What had they done to her twin? Where had they taken her?

And who…

Standing, Silke started looking around for anything that might give her a clue as to the villain’s identity, when Brogan moaned low and long.

“Brogan?”

He didn’t answer. Even under the dim alley light she could see his eyes roll back in his head. More moans.

“Can’t breathe…”

“Who can’t breathe?”

“Too close…no air…”

“Brogan, is it Shelley? Tell me!”

But the only sounds he made came from somewhere deep inside. They put a fear in Silke greater than any she’d felt before.

Brogan gasped and his eyes returned to normal. He shook his head and let out one last moan.

“What did you see?”

“Dark. Airless.” He shook his head again. “It’s only the start, only the start. More pain to follow.”

Silke glanced at the club exit. The cops had come out to the alley. How much had they heard? Hopefully they were too far back to have gotten an earful of the banshee’s prediction.

Her insides tumbled, making her catch her breath.

Concentrating, she mentally tried to find her twin. She tried every trick she’d ever used to scare up her sometimes stubborn sister, but nothing worked. Station SHELL was closed down.

And Silke knew that if she didn’t act fast, Shelley would be the next to die.

“What? No words of recrimination?”

I struggle to open my eyes. “Sebastian?”

“Don’t say you didn’t call me this time. I’m not in the mood,” he says darkly.

My mind is thick with magic. I can hardly think. Did I call him? I’m not sure. Maybe my subconscious reached out to him for help.

“Something happened…”

“Another death. Go ahead. Blame me.”

I blink and try to get my bearings, but I feel as if I’m on a tightrope and don’t have enough air to breathe.

“What’s wrong with you?” Sebastian suddenly asks. “Where are you?”

“I-I don’t know…”

“You don’t know a lot.” A woman’s voice pulled me out of the twilight and into the dark.

Wind whipped over me and I could hear the rush of traffic on one side of me and what sounded like water lapping at the shore on the other. We were outside, near the lake.

I blinked and saw Oriel standing over me. I was on my back, but not on a bed. The surface under me was hard. And there were sides. Like a box. I tried to move but was held in place as effectively as if I’d been tied up. Magic?

“Poor, deluded Silke. You see magic as a positive force. You have no idea of the powers that can be harnessed.”

So Oriel still believed she had the sister she intended to kill. I hoped that was to my advantage.

“I didn’t do anything to you, Oriel,” I said in my best Silke tone. I’d get as much out of her as I could before I made my own escape. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“It’s not you. I mean, it’s not personal. I like you, Silke, but you’re part of the plan to make Sebastian suffer for what he did to my brother.”

“I-I don’t understand.”

“Del had more natural talent than Sebastian, you know. Both of our parents were sorcerers. Given time, Delano Robichaux might have been the most powerful mage alive. But Sebastian saw him to his grave instead.”

“Sebastian killed your brother?”

I hadn’t found any such information from the internet. Or the Vegas police.

“Not directly, no. To get certain powers, Del needed leverage with an influential organization in Vegas.”

“You mean the mob?”

“Call them whatever you like.” Oriel shrugged. “Del chose the daughter of a man of importance. Unfortunately, she was married. Sebastian realized what my brother was doing and tried to stop him. They fought using sorcery and by the time the police intervened, both were drained of powers. So when an enforcer was sent to take Del out, he couldn’t defend himself.”

“And you blame Sebastian?” I asked.

Delano Robichaux was responsible for his own death as far as I could tell. While I questioned Oriel, I tried to get my bearings. I couldn’t lift my head out of the box, but if I turned I could see above the rim. High rises to one side. What looked like an old ocean liner on the other. Not an ocean liner…a beach house with concessions, shops and restrooms.

North Avenue Beach!

“If it’s Sebastian you’re after,” I said, “then why are you killing innocent people? Why did you try to kill Shelley with the fire in her apartment?”

“What do I care about them? They’re nothing special. Just humans. And your sister was not only persistent, but she’s psychic like you. I didn’t want her ruining things for me. Besides, what I’m doing to Sebastian makes it all worthwhile. By now he has to know he’s responsible for the deaths of weaklings who can’t defend themselves. It has to be killing him inside, because the only way he can stop any more from dying is by stopping his own performances. But he can’t seem to do that, can he?”

My mind whirled. Sebastian wasn’t the murderer. He was the trigger. Did he really know that? For Jake’s sake, I hoped Oriel was wrong.

“Shell told me Julie Martin had a tryst going with Sebastian.”

Oriel laughed. “Your sister is a fool. That was all part of my plan to set him up. You’ll have to explain the use of glamour to her…oops, I guess you won’t be able to. Your death is the last step in my plan.”

“So you’re going to go on killing innocent people?”

“Only you. Are you innocent, Silke?” Oriel laughed again. “The police are already after Sebastian. And when you die, your detective sister will hunt him down like a rabid dog.”

“Why do this to torture Sebastian when you could simply kill him yourself?” I hesitated, sensing a weakness in her. “Or could you?”

Oriel flushed. “I can do whatever I want.”

“I don’t think so. I think Sebastian’s powers are stronger than yours.”

“Too bad he won’t ever get the chance to prove it.”

Too bad. Not that I wanted Sebastian to be responsible for anyone’s death, not even that of a cold-hearted bitch like Oriel Leger. Rather, Oriel Robichaux.

“You really think my sister will kill Sebastian in cold blood to avenge me?”

“He’ll force her to it.”

“And he can die like any mortal?” What I really wanted to know was whether or not Oriel could die like a mortal.

“Anything is possible if Sebastian’s powers are drained. That’s how Del died, remember?”

“How are you going to do it?” I asked, wondering if I could get her to give me details. If so, I could mentally pass it on to Silke. Or Jake. Or Sebastian. That is, if Oriel didn’t have a way to stop me. “How are you going to kill me?”

Oriel smiled at me. “Sebastian has used three of the four elements in his escapes—water, wind, fire.” She waved to someone I couldn’t see. “The only element left for him to use is earth.”

The next I knew, Tattoo Boy stepped up, what looked like a large board in his hands.

As he set the board in place over the box, I heard Oriel say, “That’s why I’m going to bury you alive.”

Jake drained his glass of wine. Obviously Shelley wasn’t coming back tonight.

He was already mourning her loss.

As was the cat whirling around his ankles.

He stared down at the little beast Shelley called Cadet. She stared up at him sad-eyed. Her pink mouth opened and she yowled. Did she really want his attention?

Expecting her to fight him, Jake scooped her up and set her in his lap. Rather than jumping off, she settled down, and when he scratched her ears, she purred softly. A movement across the room caught his attention. Sarge squatted under a low table and peered out at him, as if he too were considering his chances with Jake.

How ironic that Shelley’s cats were willing to give him a chance
now
…

Enhanced hearing alerted Jake that someone was coming up the steps even before the doorbell freaked out the cats. Cadet jumped off his lap and scurried down the hall with Sarge right behind her. Jake got the buzzer then opened the door to see Shelley climbing the stairs with a man in a tweed suit and cap.

“Did you forget your keys?” he asked, then sensed something was very wrong. He took a closer look at her distressed expression. “Silke. What are you doing here? And what are you dressed up for?”

“Shelley made me trade clothes with her to protect me.”

“From what?”

“From being the next murder victim. And then she and Brogan here went to Illusions to see what she could dig up. She’s gone, Jake. They’ve got her.”

Glancing at the man who apparently really was a banshee, he asked, “Who has her?”

“The murderer!”

Jake’s blood stilled. This couldn’t be happening. He couldn’t lose Shelley. Not this way. Sebastian had said he meant to take away the one person he loved…he hadn’t said anything about killing her.

“Sebastian!”

“It’s not Sebastian,” Silke protested.

“He made his intentions clear. He was after Shelley to get at me.” Jake quickly explained his relationship to the mage.

“And you believe your own brother killed three innocent people first? Why?”

“Because he’s evil.”

“He’s not evil!”

A wail from the banshee set the flesh on Jake’s neck to pebbling. He whirled to see the man’s eyes roll back in his head.

“Can’t breathe…so close…no light…”

Brogan moaned again.

“What’s going on?” Jake asked.

“He’s experiencing Shelley’s death,” Silke said before bursting into tears.

“Now?” Jake’s mouth went sour. “You’re telling me she’s dying now?”

Brogan’s eyes lost their glassy look. “Soon,” he said, his voice spooky enough to chill Jake.

Jake grabbed his car keys. “I’m going after Sebastian.”

“How are you going to find him?” Silke asked. “He was arrested after the fire, but he vanished.”

“Then we have to make him reappear.”

“How? In a city this size, how do you expect we’re going to find him?”

Jake looked at Shelley’s double and prayed that she had what it took to get the job done. “You’re going to do it. Magic. A finding spell.”

“I might be able to do it if I had an object that belonged to Sebastian, but I don’t.”

“I do.”

Reaching into his pocket, Jake produced the photo he’d stolen from Sebastian.