true, he spent a lot of money on that mausoleum,” I murmured. “How come the Tall Man’s the only one in it?”
“Talman’s wife had family in Chicago,” Amanda said. “They didn’t want her and the children buried with him.”
“But there was a survivor, right?”
She nodded. “Clancy Brannigan’s grandfather, I believe. He was the youngest, only seven years old. If I remember correctly, he was raised by his aunt, Talman’s sister. You can’t blame them for not wanting to share his final resting place, either.”
“True,” I said.
“Just to rule out the possibility, can you tell us where you were between the hours of eleven o’clock last night and six a.m. this morning?” Cody asked her.
“Home in bed,” Amanda replied flatly.
“Alone?”
Her lips thinned again. At this rate, she was going to smudge her lipstick. “Yes. But I assure you, I had nothing to do with this. No one in the Cavannaugh family did. You’re welcome to talk to anyone you like.”
“Oh, we will.” Cody glanced at me. “On a related note, there’s another matter that you should be aware of, Mrs. Brooks.”
Taking his cue, I politely notified her that a spirit had been unleashed, Pemkowet’s dead were restless, and the entire town was very likely going to be haunted in the near future. She took the news better than I expected. In fact, we left her in the process of brainstorming ways to tie our forthcoming haunted status in with the annual Halloween promotion.
I’ll admit, I was looking forward to Cody asking Stacey about her alibi—after all, she was a Cavannaugh descendant, too—just for the malicious pleasure of having to hear her admit that she, too, spent the night alone, because I knew for a fact that she wasn’t dating anyone at the moment, but Cody headed for the door without questioning her.
“What’s up?” I asked him in the truck.
“I had an idea.” He turned on the ignition. “There are a lot of Cavannaughs to question, and they stick together. I wouldn’t put it past Amanda to warn them to get their stories straight just in case. Back in the summer, your favorite ghoul said he could tell when people are lying as long as they’re not sociopaths.”
“You want to recruit Stefan?” The notion gave me an unsettled feeling in the pit of my belly. Or maybe it was just the venison sausage.
“He owes me.” That was true. Stefan credited me with saving his life, but it was Cody who’d done the actual saving. I’d just created the opportunity. “What’s the matter?” There was an edge to his tone. “I thought you’d gotten pretty cozy with him.”
I wagged my finger at him. “Ah-ah! You’re not allowed to get jealous over an unsuitable mate.”
He shrugged. “I just think you’re playing with fire when it comes to ghouls in general, and Ludovic in particular.”
“As opposed to whatever we’re doing here?” I said.
Cody smiled wryly. “You have a point.”
Thirty-nine
It was an uncomfortable meeting.
In a lot of ways, I was far more at ease in the Wheelhouse than I had been only a few short months ago. It was still a biker bar, still a hangout for ghouls and the skanks they fed on, but I’d learned to think of the ghouls as Outcast, the Outcast had learned to regard me with a measure of respect, and even the skanks were looking healthier. According to Cooper, Stefan’s prohibition against chemically induced emotions had sent a few of them to rehab. Now their only addiction was the ghouls themselves.
Unfortunately, I still hadn’t gotten used to the fact that Stefan had a direct pipeline to my emotions, distance no object. The second I saw his polite, guarded expression, I realized that he’d gotten a major hit of raw, unbridled lust this morning. And I promptly blushed like a teenaged girl, my blood scalding beneath my skin as I dropped the mental shield I’d automatically raised upon entering the place. My mortification sent a ripple through the Outcast. All around the bar, pupils dilated in a sudden rush.
So much for equanimity.
Stefan hustled us into his office in the back. “I take it you haven’t contained the spirit that was unleashed.”
“Why?” I asked him. “Because the Tall Man’s corpse was stolen?” He gave a brief nod in response. “What do you know about obeah and death magic?”
“Nothing of use, I fear,” Stefan said with regret. “Only that I have heard rumors throughout my life of sorcerers in the West Indies capable of raising the dead.”