he’s family now. He tends to be protective. He’s coming with Tony Brandt. They’re going to camouflage the murder.”
“A cleanup crew. That’s convenient,” Mick said, as if from far away.
“Come on.” She tugged at his arm, and he finally turned from the dead werewolf and left with her.
* * *
Rhiannon’s Volvo and Brodie’s ATV were just pulling up as Mick and Barrie came out through the gate onto the street. Barrie’s cousins piled out of the Volvo; Brodie and Brandt got out of the Explorer.
Rhiannon and Sailor rushed forward, whether to hug Barrie or kill her was not entirely clear, but Brodie said sharply and quietly, “Save it. Everyone inside the gate. We can’t be attracting any attention.”
In the garden, after Barrie had endured the requisite hugging and reprimanding, she introduced Mick to Brodie, and they looked each other over with alpha-male wariness, then to Brandt, who also looked at Mick sharply and thoughtfully. She found herself feeling defensive, as if Mick was somehow being judged and found wanting. She reached for his hand, and he closed his fingers over hers absently.
“Let’s take a look,” Brodie said to Brandt, and then glanced at the cousins and Mick. “The rest of you stay here inside the gate.”
Brodie and Brandt disappeared into the house.
“It’s awful. Staged,” Barrie said to her cousins, as they all took seats on the planters around the fountain. “Like the killer was sending a warning.”
“It’s more than that,” Mick said, slipping an arm around Barrie as he looked up at the house. She leaned into him as he spoke. “In the film that scene was about the were being made an example of for trying to break the Code of Silence.”
Barrie glanced up at him, frowning.
He elaborated. “The vampires talked about it in the scene before the murder.”
Barrie’s mind was racing as she scrambled to remember. “I don’t think that was in the scene.”
She could see Rhiannon and Sailor thinking, too.
“No,” Sailor said. “We just saw the movie. That wasn’t in the scene.”
An odd look flashed across Mick’s face in the dark. Then he shrugged. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen it. I could be wrong.”
Barrie bit her nails as she looked up at the house. The bloody scene inside was imprinted in her mind, probably forever. The sweet fragrances of jasmine and lemon blossoms that surrounded them just seemed painful in the circumstances.
“I don’t see how we’re going to be able to keep things under wraps anymore,” she said aloud. “Two Hollywood players on that level dying so close together?”
“And both connected to Otherworld,” Rhiannon brooded.
“People aren’t necessarily going to see it that way,” Sailor pointed out. “They’ve both worked on so many other films, Mayo especially. He’s green-lit dozens of movies just at WIP. We’re seeing it as related to Otherworld because Barrie made the connection. And you know how everyone in town expects people to die in threes. No one ever thinks that the deaths are related, they just know that death comes in threes.”
It was true. When a major celebrity died it always set the gossip mill speculating over who would be next.
“That’s sort of brilliant, Sailor,” Rhiannon said. “Maybe we can even encourage that kind of talk.”
“No,” Barrie said violently, startling the others, who looked at her in shock. “It’s too close to what might really happen.” The thought was actually terrifying, because she realized she was fully expecting more people—and Others—to die. But before she could say that, there was the sound of footsteps, and everyone turned toward the house as Brodie and Brandt came out into the garden. The cousins all stood, anxious to hear.
“He died from blood loss, caused by a spear through the throat,” Brandt reported in a low voice. “Severed the carotid and jugular. Exsanguination was almost instantaneous, occurring within a minute. You can see the blood spray curtained all over the walls. Then the body was moved, but not far. He was speared through the throat and died in front of the fireplace, then hung up on the chimney soon after. Core body temperature indicates he’s been dead only a few hours.” He turned to Barrie. “You must have found him very shortly after the killer left.”
Rhiannon and Sailor eyed Barrie with a combination of relief and accusation.
“I know, I know,” she muttered.
“The killer might have been right there in the house with you!” Rhiannon exploded.
“I was invisible. And I’m fine,” Barrie defended herself.
Before her cousins could jump on her, Brodie stepped forward to stop the