same time or I’ll set it off. However, if I do cut them, it’s easily discovered, and Weber will know his system was breached. This may take a few minutes.” He reached into his kit. “First, I need to—”
Adam reached down and grasped the mess of wires. A spark, then they disintegrated to ash.
“Or we could just do that,” Lucas said.
“Damn those spontaneous electrical fires,” Adam said.
“Been practicing, I see,” I said.
Adam grinned and wiped the ash from his hand. He grabbed the door handle.
“Wait,” I said.
I cast an unlock spell. Adam opened the door. We paused, but no alarm sounded. Lucas finished replacing the wires, then waved us inside.
We soon understood why Weber put a security system on a rented farmhouse. Any money he’d saved on rent, he’d invested in electronics, with multiple computers, a plasma TV, and a hi-fi system that I’m sure rocked the neighbors even a mile away.
While Adam and Lucas started searching, I headed for my area of expertise: the computer. I quickly discovered that Weber applied the same standard of security to his hard drive as he did to his house. Although he was the only person living there, he had the computer password-protected. It took nearly thirty minutes to crack that, only to find that all his data—even his e-mail—was encrypted. I burned the files onto a CD for later.
Since Lucas and Adam were still searching, I returned to Weber’s computer to search for a specific piece of information: a credit card number. Seeing how careful Weber was with his files, I assumed this search would be futile. Well, I was wrong. Five minutes of hunting and I found a cookie containing an unencrypted credit card number. Later I could hack into the credit card company system and search his records, in hopes that if he was our killer, he’d used his card for traveling.
After another hour, we declared the house thoroughly searched. Lucas and Adam hadn’t found anything. We could only hope that decrypting Weber’s files and checking his credit card records would prove more fruitful.
We retreated to Santa Cruz, where Adam lived with his parents. I was eager to get Weber’s credit card records, but Adam’s mother, Talia, insisted that we have dinner first and, having been on food-free mental superdrive since breakfast, I had to agree that my brain needed nourishment before I did something as dangerous as hack into credit card companies.
We had fettuccine Alfredo alfresco, on the multilevel deck that covered half the backyard. Talia and Robert ate with us to hear about the case. As usual, Adam’s initial recitation had left out half the details and mangled the rest, so they’d waited to hear the real story from the source.
Talia was one of the few humans who lived within the supernatural world. That was her choice, to accept the dangers of that knowledge in order to better understand her son and husband, and play a full role in their lives. Over the last few years, Robert’s health had begun to fail, and Talia had been picking up the slack. Robert was only sixty-eight, but his physical condition had never been what one would call robust, forcing him even from an early age to take the scholarly approach to helping other half-demons, acting as a resource and a confidant. Talia, who was twenty-seven years younger, had embraced the midlife career change. As for Adam taking over Robert’s work, well, let’s just say no one expected him to be sitting behind a desk, reading demonology texts, anytime soon.
Adam bit off a chunk of bread and chewed it as he talked. “So that’s it. We broke, we entered, we found zip.”
“I hope you were careful—” Talia began, then stopped. “Yes, I’m sure you were. If there’s anything Robert and I can do…”
“Lend us your Miata?” Adam said. “The Jeep’s been making a funny noise.”
“The Jeep’s been making funny noises since you bought it, and the last time you drove my car, you buggered up the convertible roof, but if there’s anything else we can do…”
“You asked about a demon named Nasha,” Robert said, speaking for the first time since the meal had begun.
“Oh, that’s right,” I said. “I completely forgot.”
“Well, I would have relayed an answer through Adam, but I was stalling to give myself more time, and possibly find a better answer. There’s no mention in any text of a demon named Nasha. It’s quite likely the poor girl misheard, but I can’t even find a name that phonetically