Chapter 13

By nine o'clock the next morning Cassie was a new woman. The healer had gotten her ankle down to only mild bruising, a faint red line marked her leg where she'd fallen on the dance floor and the one on her face was barely visible. Between that and the best beignets she'd ever had with her coffee that morning, she was over the moon. Oh and of course there was the matter of no longer living in fear of discovery for being a magickal flop. If the healer hadn't told her to take it easy she would have done cartwheels.

Cassie was stopping back in her room after breakfast when her phone rang and she hustled to catch it. It was her service.

"Good morning Ms. Porter. Drew Carter called last night. He wanted to see if you were okay. Did something happen Ma'am?"

Cassie's lips curved involuntarily and she felt a bubble of excitement in her chest. "No, nothing big. Thanks Karly." She hung up, holding her phone absently to her chest thinking about the man she'd met last night.

He'd been an intriguing combination of kindness, indifference and anger. Sometimes in the same instant. It was undeniably linked to the amulet he wore. Though he clearly did not consciously understand that he or his brother had anything to do with the deaths of their parents there had been hints that deep down he knew there was something different about him, like that story about the aunt. That sort of thing told her he was suspicious of his ability on some level. His partial belief in the existence of magick was not unusual nor was his reaction. There was really nothing about him that set him apart from any of the other uninitiated and untrained witches and practitioners from various sects and walks of life, and yet she'd found her thoughts drifting back to him since they'd left the club. That he'd called and checked up on her meant more than it should.

Cassie chastised herself for allowing the distraction. Last night's progress didn't undo three and a half years of botching things. It was only a step in the right direction. It was going to take some serious buckling down to convince Anna completely that she should be allowed to keep her job. That was what Cassie should be worrying about, she reminded herself.

"Cassie." Julia knocked on their adjoining door. "Cassie, we have a situation." Her typically easy voice was high and urgent. That usually meant someone was on fire. Literally.

Snapping out of her daydream, Cassie tossed the phone on her bed and hurried to unlock the door. Julia promptly rushed past her. Almost simultaneously, there was a knock on the main door and Julia opened it to allow Quan entrance.

"We don't have much time to lock this thing down." Julia's accent was thick enough to challenge Cassie's ear until it adjusted. "Local police are holding Drew Carter for questioning in a double homicide that happened at the club last night." Seeing Cassie's eyes bug out and mouth fall open, she held up a hand. "Now don't jump to any conclusions. He's not a suspect, yet." She gave them both a meaningful look and Quan stared at her, maddeningly dull.

"When did that happen? Did Pritchard come back after we left?" Cassie's fists were clenched at her sides. She forced them open and took a breath, feeling the beginnings of energy tingling on her skin. Another deep breath and the tingle disappeared. Drew had been pretty upset at the man although Cassie wouldn't have put it on the level of a killing rage although sometimes people surprised her. Had that been why he'd called her? Hopefully their visit hadn't pushed him to take off his ring, the kind of surge that could come from that would easily explain a spree of violence. Her hand found her cheek absently.

Julia shook her head. "No, it wasn't Pritchard. The police are saying it was a drug deal gone south in the alley behind the club. Plenty of witnesses saw Drew running down from the office like his ass was on fire. An employee was out right on his heels and said he was just standing there throwing up on the crime scene."

"Pritchard." Cassie forced herself to be calm, chaos danced just below the surface.

"I don't think so Cassie." The crease in Julia's brow deepened. "Research sent a copy of the police report from the parents' deaths this morning. The two last night were killed exactly the same way as Mr. and Mrs. Carter fourteen years ago." A slight tremor ruffled the pages as she held out the file. "It's bad."

It had to be if Julia was shaken. A glance told her Quan had already seen the file, he wasn't even looking at it. Taking the offered folder, Cassie flipped through its bright white pages, not letting her eyes linger on the photographs. Again finding action better suited to her mood than sitting around. Cassie's eyes went to Julia.

"Do we have anyone at the station where they're holding him? Anyone in Research with access to their network who can take down the file so they don't find it?" Cassie was scrambling, telling herself it was for the protection of the regulars and for the sake of public safety. If the police would make the family connection and put pressure on Drew he could lash out and hurt more people. If he could kill from a distance, he was far more powerful than she'd thought. Guilt wracked at her insides. It was irresponsible for them to have left him like that last night. "We can have someone go to," she looked at the insignia on the front of the file, "Peoria to get a hold of the actual physical file. That's not far from headquarters."

Closing her eyes Julia gave a grim nod. "We have someone working on losing the file both in the system and the hardcopy. We have a friend in the station here in Tampa working on moving things along to get him released except Drew isn't cooperating. He doesn't want to give his statement or talk to anybody and the police are getting a touch anxious. They're holding him right now saying it's just a matter of procedure although it could turn into something else if he keeps needling him like he is. Anna wants us to get over there and get him out before he stresses out and does something. We're hoping he's wearing that amulet and it's keeping him reined in for the time being." She exchanged a look with Quan. "Anna wants Quan at the crime scene to see if he can pick anything up. There's a chance it was the brother. If it was, we're definitely going to have to bring him in for trial. That'd be four bodies on his head. Either way, Anna wants both boys under our watch right quick. It's a good thing you're up and running Cassie.

She wants you heavily involved in this one, she says we have the Directors' full attention."

Cassie's stomach plummeted. They all knew what that meant. If the Directors were involved there could be no mistakes. Cassie gulped. The possible scope of damage, should this go badly at the police station, was extensive. Memories could be confused if need be but it was never total nor was it without its risks. "Okay."

"I will go now before the police ruin the trail." Quan turned and left to hail a cab without delay. The clock was running. The more people who went to the scene, the harder it would be for him to sniff out the trail and potentially track the witch.

"Are you ready for this?" As usual, Julia sensed her junior's trepidation. "We not only have the very daunting task of keeping that young man calm, we also have the greater challenge of getting him to lie convincingly to the police and tell them he doesn't know anything about anything. I'm going to need you for that, he doesn't much like me yet." Her eyes crinkled in the corners, her mirth went no farther.

Cassie was picturing the look on Drew's face when he'd ordered them out last night. That and the bodies of his parents in the pictures from the police report flashed front and center in her mind. Cassie lifted her chin and nodded. "I can do that."

Their business casual dress would do for their purposes. All they had to do was be respectable and try not to raise any suspicions. Their friend at the station, also known as a sympathizer in some circles, would be able to get them in to see Drew without having to rely on false pretenses. Julia could easily pull off the role of lawyer although Cassie would be hard pressed to do anything but concerned girlfriend and that one would most likely push the precariously balanced client over the edge.

Cassie drove while the GPS directed them to the station where Drew was being held. Being the ranking agent and her age giving her credibility, Julia walked in first and took the lead. She asked for Wendy Schumacher.

They were told to have a seat and Officer Schumacher would be with them shortly. It was nearly ten minutes before Julia's name was called and both women turned toward the voice to see the officer bustling their direction at an efficient clip.

If she wasn't actively using her magick there was no way of telling if she was a witch or not without Quan. What Cassie could see was that the "friendly" officer was an average height, probably a good three inches taller than Cassie and at least twenty pounds heavier. Julia rose and Cassie followed suit. Officer Schumacher shook first Julia's hand then Cassie's. Her mildly hooked nose, wide hazel eyes and chestnut hair cut short and swept to the side gave her the outward appearance a cute if not handsome young man at first blush. It took a second look to see that the breasts were bound and hidden among the extra pounds along with the womanly curve of her hips. She wore no makeup nor did she wax or tweeze any of the light hair that most women concerned with femininity would eradicate with a tenacity usually reserved for guerilla warfare.

"Officer Schumacher, thank you for seeing us." Julia greeted her warmly, keeping her hands at her sides telling Cassie the woman was a witch.

Smiling back, the officer backed up to give them space to stand and follow. "Of course, I'm always willing to help out a friend of the family. If you could come with me, I'll bring you to him." She turned and took a few steps back the direction from which she'd come. "We should hurry, the lead detective doesn't like being stonewalled. It's making him want to go hard on Mr. Carter. He's thinking of slapping him with obstructing justice if he doesn't talk soon.

The guy's got a sheet too." Her face twisted even with her shoulder to keep her voice down. "Nothing major but with the tie to drugs here and in his past it could give the detective all the ammo he needs to paint a picture if you know what I mean."

Newly motivated to get him out as fast as possible they sped through the tile corridor, the long narrow windows giving them quick flashes of the white stucco building close beside them until they reached the elevator. When the doors opened on the lower floor, gone were the minimal touches of comfort from the upstairs level. This was the floor devoted to the less welcome and yet more common element that spent time here.

The overhead fluorescents hummed and one flickered partway down the hall to cast the grey painted walls in a sickly green light. Industrial gray and white tiles marked their passing, sending each footfall echoing through the dungeonlike chamber like a warning.

The hall came to a "T" with a desk sergeant to their right behind a cage and a bank of desks as well as a few small offices on the other side. Their escort pointed to the offices.

"He's down here. For now he's still just a witness." She led them past several rows of desks sparsely occupied by a few officers working at computers. One was in the process of taking a man in cuffs into one of the offices.

Officer Schumacher pointed to a closed door three down from the end on the far wall. Cassie's pulse picked up, she was nervous to see him after how things had ended last night. Squaring her shoulders, she prepared herself for the anticipated attack. What she found was far more unsettling.

Peering through a small narrow window in the door they saw their client staring blank faced at the surface of the plain metal table in front of where he sat. There was no sign of the swagger from yesterday in the curved shoulders and drooping head of Drew Carter. Last night had aged him ten years. He failed to look up at the sound of their shoes marking their arrival.

"I can only buy you about twenty minutes. They've got him isolated hoping he'll break." Officer Shumacher gave him a pitying glance and added. "They're probably right." With a brief nod in their direction, she left and closed the door.

In the ensuing silence, Julia touched Cassie's arm and pulled her back to the door where she spoke in a hushed whisper. "I'm going to let you speak with him alone." She held her eyes raising her brows. "Remember, he is to give them a statement that he saw nothing of the act, only that he went to investigate something he'd seen on his security camera. After they get that they have to let him go, they don't have enough to hold him. The only reason they're holding him now is because this is one of those cases that gets under their skin and him keeping quiet is pissing them off."

Cassie's eyes darted to Drew and back. She wondered if it was too late for Julia to play lawyer and argue to get him out without having to rely on Cassie.

"I'll be outside seeing what I can get out of the locals. Cassie," she regarded her young partner down her thin, straight nose, "keep your cool and don't get him riled."