Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7) (55 page)

Elizabeth pulled the man’s name and driver’s license picture up on her tablet. “Terrific. We’re going to be making a little stop
to meet Stephen Harding this morning.”

“
I’m glad that I could be of service,” Cyra said, watching Rex sitting protectively beside Elizabeth. “What do you need me to do now?”

“I want you to start pulling
the financials on all the victims. Maybe we’re missing something. I want to assure that when this goes to court, we don’t get screwed big time.”

She began working.

Before they could pack up their gear and head out for the interview, there was another knock at the door. In walked the chief of police and her one officer.

“
Chief Lowry and Officer Marsh, to what do we owe this pleasure?” Elizabeth inquired.

The woman stood there with her arms crossed. “You’ve yet to file an update with my office
or give me copies of the reports like you said you would. I figured since you obviously don’t want to play nice, I’d come to you.”

Had the woman asked
politely, she would have immediately complied. Since Elizabeth didn't like her tone, she was going to slap some bitch down. “Oh, I’d love to do just that but I’m sorry, we’re about to run out to interview a suspect, so it’ll have to wait.”

The woman didn't look impressed.
“No, you’ll give it to me now.”

When Elizabeth stood, Rex also got up, making his appearance known.

“What the hell is that fleabag doing in here?” demanded Lowry, stepping back. “We don’t allow dogs in our buildings, and he’s got to go.”

The
big thing with Elizabeth was that the more people told her no, the more she wanted to stir the pot to get the answer she wanted.

Yeah, Rex wasn’t going anywhere now.
Since he irritated the chief of police, he was staying. If anything, he’d assure the woman left her alone.

Elizabeth patted
him on the head. “That’s our FBI dog. He sniffs out bullshit and other random acts of stupidity.”

Cyra made a hand signal that only Rex could see. On
cue, he jumped up, placed his paws on the table, and barked like mad. It caused Gena Lowry to back out of the office and slam the door. When she was gone, they all started laughing.

“I think I love you, Rex,” she leaned down to drop a kiss on his snout.
She noticed that he was looking at her peanut butter cookie, so Elizabeth broke a piece off. “You’re the best dog ever.”

Cyra
knew that was a huge tactical error on Elizabeth’s behalf. “When he pukes in the Denali, I don’t want to be blamed, since you’re feeding him people food.”

She shrugged. “I’m a mom. I clean up a lot of puke.” Changing the subject, she pointed at her agent. “While you’re running financials,
I want you to really dig into Artemis and Ares’s lives. That’s obviously not their real names, so find them and get me an in depth on the man and his witchy wife.”

As they all walked to the door, Rex began whining. He moved across the room and sat in front of Ethan, dropping his paws on his feet.

He crouched down to run his hands over the dog’s coat. “What’s wrong? We’ll be back and the pretty one will probably have a bag of something for you. She’s predictable.”

“Hey!”

Cyra laughed. She was glad the bosses loved her dog.

On the way out, Elizabeth looked at the men. “Can I get a dog?”

They both answered at the same time. “NO!”

“Why not?”

Ethan went first. “Dogs make a mess on the carpet.”

“Newsflash
ace, so do kids, and you want more of those don’t you?”

Ethan crossed his arms. “Are you saying if I let you have a dog, you’ll
let me have more kids?”

“
That is exactly what I’m saying.”

“
Then you show me a positive pregnancy test and I’ll find you a bouncing ball of fur.”

Callen started laughing at what he already saw coming. “
I can’t believe you just negotiated a child with an animal.”

Ethan
really wanted more kids in their family.

If the price was a dog, so be it.

                                *   *   *

He
had noticed that they were all becoming complacent.

Well, he’d fix that too. It was time to start to watch the next woman
and prepare for the moment when he would take her. Oh, they assumed that it had everything to do with the coven meetings, well they were very wrong.

Now
, he would make a point. He would take one without there being a meeting. Just so they would shake their heads in wonderment.

Yes, the dark
Lord was calling once more, begging him to bring another to the sacrificial altar, so his power could grow.

Who was he to disobey?

He’d offer up another just to make a statement.

Tonight
, the magick was going to happen.

In the cover of darkness, he’d take her and give her soul to the one
who owned his own.

It was time…

             
                  *   *   *

Knocking on the door, they waited patiently for someone to answer. If he wasn’t there, they’d be back. As of right now, they didn't really have a lot of leads to work with, but Stephen Harding was their best bet.

Everything that they had on him showed that he had a propensity to cause harm to women, and unfortunately for him, their killer fit that description perfectly.

Once more, they
began banging on the door, only this time Callen was using his booted foot. It obviously worked, since they heard footsteps as someone approached to answer.

When he pulled it open, he was
caught off guard. Standing there were the three Feds with their badges out and not an ounce of amusement on their faces.

“Stephen Harding?” Blackhawk asked, tucking
his ID back into his pocket.

“Yeah, that’s me. What do you want?”

Callen picked up where his brother left off, “When’s the last time you saw Harmony Wilcox?”

The man tensed. “Why?”

It was Elizabeth’s turn. “Oh, no reason. The FBI is a little slow this month, and we decided to go door to door randomly and ask stupid people, asinine questions.”

He stared at her
and looked confused. “I haven’t seen her since that lousy bitch had me slapped with a PFA.”

“Wow,
we love when people answer us that way. Now, you need to give us an alibi,” Callen said, staring menacingly at the man.

“Wait, what’s going on?” he asked
as he looked from one to the other. “You only need alibis when someone’s dead.”

And
then he finally got it.

“You’re a quick one, Stephen Harding. So now, entertain us with yours.” Elizabeth was getting tired of idiots. Her tolerance was running
very low, and she wasn’t expecting that to change while here.

“She’s dead?”
He stared openmouthed. “Shit. Okay, when do I need the alibi for?”

Ethan gave him the date and prepared to enter any information he gave into his tablet.

“Okay that’s easy. I was at work. I go in every night at six and work until six in the morning. I work four shifts on and four off. Today’s my first day off since Monday.”

“We need your
boss’s number,” Callen stated as he entered it into his phone. When it began ringing, he walked away to have the conversation in private.

“Is she
really dead?” he asked, still shocked.

“Yes.”

He didn't like the idea that they were basically accusing him of being a murderer. “Wait, I’m not a killer. I don’t know what you heard, but I didn't hurt Harmony. Yeah, we broke up, but I’m not a nutcase.”

Ethan looked up. “
Then why were you slapped with a PFA? Why don’t you tell us your side of the story then?”

“I came home one night smelling like perfume. She lost her mind and accused me of having a cheap affair.”

“And were you?” Elizabeth questioned.

“Well yeah, but it didn't mean anything.”

Callen walked back over. “He’s in the clear.”

“See
! I told you!” Stephen was so glad that he was at work last night. “I may have cheated on her, but I wouldn’t kill her. I loved Harmony!”

Elizabeth stared at him. “You loved her, but you cheated on her? You think somehow
that shows a woman that you cherish and adore her?”

“Hey, I wasn’t getting laid at home. Our sex life was going downhill. Harmony had lost interest in doing it.
I didn't stop caring about her. I only had the affair to take care of my needs. It was a one night stand with no strings attached.”

There were days that i
f she could slap someone around, she would certainly do it.

Ethan picked up where the man was heading.
“Generally, if the sex stops in a relationship, there’s a reason. Did you ever try and find out why?”

He stared at the men like they were crazy. “No, why would I
? You’ve never had a dry spell in bed when you were with the same woman for a while?”

Both men looked over at Elizabeth and then back to the
man. “No,” they replied at the same time.

She almost wanted to laugh.

“Hey, before you crucify me for cheating on her, she wasn’t exactly innocent in all this. Harmony had some crush on a man she saw around town.”

Great, this might lead them somewhere.

“Do you know his name?”

Stephen Harding rubbed his forehead. “Archie, Allan, Azra,” he began. “I don’t know! It was some weird name. Not a normal
one you hear every day.”

“Ares?” Callen suggested, finding the link and jumping in with it.

“YEAH! That’s it! How did you know?”

He shook his head. “
It was just a very lucky guess.”

Elizabeth was fascinated with the coincidence.
How likely was it that Ares was heading a coven of witches that were being killed, and one of the victims had been infatuated with him? Maybe, he was tying up loose ends to make it look like a satanic murder and to point it away from them. Now, she was forced to wonder where their victim played into all this.

“Did she act on it?”

He shrugged. “I don’t have a clue. I thought it was more of a crush. She mentioned his name a lot, but that’s it.”

Elizabeth stared at his chest. “I notice you wear a cross. How do you feel about worshipping the
devil?”

Stephen
looked appalled at what she was even saying and immediately, he crossed himself as if it would protect him. “Listen here! I’m a good Catholic man. I still go to mass on Sundays.”

They
simply stared at him.

Yeah, he was a regular saint.

Ethan dropped his sunglasses on his face. “Stick around, Stephen. We may have more questions for you to answer,” he said, walking away. At the Denali, they regrouped.

“I find it interesting that a dead victim was infatuated with Ares,” Elizabeth said.

“Yeah, where’s there’s smoke,” Ethan began.

“There’s a raging affair where the
partner doesn’t know,” Callen added, laughing.

Elizabeth looked up at hi
m. “I’ll keep that in mind, Cal, in case I ever smell anything burning.”

He looked mortified! “Wait, I didn't mean…”

Ethan gave his wife a fist bump. “Sometimes, he makes it too easy.”

She couldn’t disagree with that. “He certainly does.”

She found him crawling under a morgue table.

Although Cyra found that odd, she didn't even let it
faze her. Working with the FBI and being in love with an ME weren’t always normal either.

“Christopher, what are you doing?” she asked, crouching down
to stare at him.

“I’m looking for that evidence before Elizabeth fires me
or ships my butt off to Timbuktu. I know things get misplaced, but this is the worst time and place for it to happen.”

“So
, that means you’re too busy now?”

He stared up at her. “Why? What do you n
eed me to do for you?” he asked, winking.

Oh, she had plenty of ideas
. “I brought us coffee and cookies. I thought we could take a lunch break and maybe spend a few minutes together. It seems that I missed you.”

His heart skipped
at her words. “I can do that,” he stated, heading to the sink to wash his hands. “What kind of cookies?”