Sun Broken (The Wild Hunt #11) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,16
hurt to bring in Raven and see if it’s Mendin’s ghost. If so, he might be able to tell us something about his killer.” We were relying more and more on Raven’s abilities when the spirit world came up.
Raven BoneTalker had gone from being a client to being one of Angel’s and my best friends over the past six months. She was a bone witch, and one of the Ante-Fae. The Ante-Fae were the predecessors of both Light and Dark Fae, and every single one had differing powers. Far more powerful than the Fae, the Ante-Fae tended to be capricious and chaotic. Some, like Raven, were good-hearted and fun to hang out with, while others were dark and dangerous. But all of them could be deadly, and few of them lived by society’s rules.
“Are you sure that wouldn’t trigger off bad memories, given Ulstair?” Viktor frowned.
I sighed. “You might be right. I don’t know. Let me feel her out. She seems to have put his death behind her, but you never know.”
Raven’s boyfriend had been kidnapped by a serial killer, and in the end, we found his body in UnderLake Park, near her home. We had found the killer, but the entire journey had been dark and the end, even darker.
After a moment, I said, “I’m not thrilled about taking on another serial killer case, I can tell you that.”
“Me either. We’ve had too many over the past year.”
“Yeah, and this one looks messy.” I stared at the blood on the living room floor. The carpet was saturated and stained, and there were splatters on the furniture, too, now that I looked closer. “Let’s take what seems important and get the fuck out of here.” I had the sudden urge to run, to get away from the house.
Viktor nodded. “Let me find a bag to carry things in.” He disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a couple of large paper bags. We filled them with the laptop, the phone, as many letters and bills as I could find, and two pictures, including the one of Mendin and Candace. When we were finally ready, we headed out to the car.
Leela was waiting to lock up. I made sure she had the names of the cleaning company and the crime unit’s community liaison, so she could apply for reimbursement for the hazmat team. Once we were done, Viktor and I pulled away from the curb. I glanced back at the house. It had a forlorn look to it, and I wondered if Mendin was truly there. Had he been trapped, unable to move on given the violent nature of the crime? Finally, I pushed the thought out of my mind, because there was nothing I could do about it.
By the time we got back to the office, it was nearly three. We sorted out all the things we had gathered from Mendin onto the break room table, and Talia got started cataloguing them.
“If you can find the number of a woman named Candace, we think she might be Mendin’s girlfriend. I don’t know if she knows he’s dead, so be cautious if you call her. We don’t want to just drop a bomb on her. Also, sort out the movers with the landlady—she’s a bigot, by the way. ‘Cryptos make me uncomfortable,’ ” I said, grimacing. “But she’s working with us, so just…work around that. She needs to get a hazmat team in there, as soon as possible. There’s blood and tissue everywhere.”
“He was killed at home?” Talia asked.
I nodded. “Looks that way, unlike the rest. Okay,” I turned to Victor. “What’s next on the agenda?”
“We have an appointment to meet Isolde Adella, the fourth victim’s wife. Chaya and Isolde were married three years ago, and from the notes in the file, delivering the news about Chaya went about as bad as you can imagine. Isolde fainted, and when she came to, she was so broken up she could barely answer any questions.”
“Where are we meeting her?” I slid on my leather jacket. Even though it was sunny, I had learned the hard way to wear a protective jacket, if possible. I had been in too many unexpected fights to go in unprotected.
“Theo’s Coffee Bar. It’s only three blocks away, so I thought we could walk.” He picked up his messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“Coffee? I’m in for that.” I slid my backpack over one shoulder and we headed out, letting Angel know we were leaving.