Linda Welch - A conspiracy of Demons (10 page)

“One of my favorites at the time. Now it’s all CSI this and CSI that.”

Stirland and Haney sat at facing desks. Stirland
, in his shirtsleeves,
pecked at his keyboard. Haney relaxed in his chair, hands at his waist and thumbs tucked
in
his belt beneath the unbuttoned jacket. He rose to his feet when we reached him.

He waved at two chairs. “Take a se
at.”

Stirland swung his chair to face us. “What can we do for you? Do you have information on
the
Summers
case
?”

Probably the reason the
y
let us up here. “Nope,” I smiled sweetly. “J
ust
catching up
. Wondering how you’re doing nowadays. How are the wife and
kids
, by the way?”

His expression set, then relaxed as h
e followed my gaze to a framed photo on his desk. A pretty woman with short red hair stood next to him,
between them
a red-h
aired
boy of around six years
and girl perhaps eight years
. “They’re fine, thank you.”

“And the new baby boy?”

His face froze again
, then his eyes narrowed. “
Have you been checking up on me
?”

“You have spit-up on your
lapel.”
As he grasped his lapel and looked
down, I
tugged
the big, cheap cigar bound with a blue band from beneath a few sheets of paper and twirled it in my fingers.
“How old is he
?”

He gave me a filthy look. “Five
days. Why are you here?”

“
What progress have you made with the investigation?” Royal asked, as if he actually thought they’d tell us
.

“Mortensen,” Stirland said
, gazing levelly at Royal.
“
Heard of you. You were a hotshot
at
Clarion
till yo
u gave it
up to
go into business
with Miss Banks. Was it worth it?
”

Royal’s expression went cool, but he simply said, “Yes.”

He
clasped his hands behind his back.
“We are professionals, Detective. You could cut us
some
slack.”

“Maybe I could,” Stirland said, “if Miss Banks didn’t have a strong connection to the victim.”

I
pursed my
lip
s
. “I wouldn’t call it strong.”

“Come on, Banks
,
she was on her way to you,” Haney said.

“Maybe
,” I admitted. “But not to my knowledge.”

“
You know how it goes, Banks,”
from Stirl
and. His eyes narrowed on me. “You give us a little, we give you a little, but you
neglected to mention the
workshop
you attended with Ms. Summers was for police consultants.”

I
fell
back in the chair
. “Oops. I did, didn’t I. Didn’t think it was relevant.”

He stood and took his jacket off his chair. “Sorry you came all this way for nothing.”

“Nah.” I flapped my hand. “We were passing by anyway, been to the mall. Had to update my wardrobe.”

He perched one hip on the desk. “You must have a favorite store to drive to University Mall from Clarion.”

I didn’t even blink. “Yeah, Charlotte Russe.”

His lip curled as he looked me over. Charlotte Russe is
so
not my style. I’m more an L
.
L
.
Bean kind of girl.

Royal and I got upright,
nodded at the d
etectives in lieu of a farewell
and headed for the exit
.

Although he s
neered
in an undertone, I heard Stirland’s, “
Freak
.”

I’ve heard it before, but never with a depth of
disgust
which made my stomach clench.
I
was back at Stirland’s desk and in his face
faster than Royal, and that’s saying something. And I mean
in his face,
so close I saw every individual eyelash. My voice snarled. “You wanna see freak, Stirland?”

Royal
stood there with me,
h
ands fisted at his sides, angled slightly over the s
horter
detective so
Stirland had to look up
at
our
face
s
. And
Royal’s
face
was chiseled of marble
.

His
voice
sounded
cold enough to make a ghost shiver. “I hope I was mistaken in what I heard.”

Stirland stuck his thumbs in his belt and puffed out his chest. “Back off, before I arrest you for obstructing an officer
in the performance of his duty.
”

“Fuck you, Stirland,” I contributed.

Haney couldn’t decide what to do. He took a step toward
us
, glanced at me, stepped back. He knew his partner had crossed the line. He looked at me again and shrugged, then sat in the edge of his desk.

Royal’s lip curled. He sneered
in
Stirland’s face.
“
As I recall, the code of conduct does not condone insulting civilians.”

“Unless they’re
out of earshot,” Haney murmured.
Maybe Stirland made a habit of running his mouth off at civilians and Haney didn’t approve.

Royal had not taken his
eyes
off Stirland; they
shot daggers
at the detective
. “A
nd as for obstruction . . . step outside, and I will show you the meaning of obstruction.”

Haney tugged his earlobe. “Mortensen, did it escape your notice there are twelve officers in here, all of them armed?”

“No, it did not.”

I held my breath.
Royal kept his sneer
.

“Ooh er,” Carrie whispered.

I grabbed Royal’s arm and tried to tow him from the room, but he refused to
pick up his pace. He strolled. As
we came to the door, he
pivoted on his heel
and gave
Stirland
an arctic look. Stirland didn’t respond, but Royal
’
s expression made
me
shiver.

“
Bye—
bye,” Carrie said. “See you tomorrow then.”

The temptation to
reply
itched at me.

“Don’t worry about a thing!” she called as we went
through the door
.

If I were
no
t worried before, I was now. We had
thoroughly pissed off Stirland
and that was not good.

At the exit, Royal held the door open for me and st
ood aside to let me through. Our feet beat down
the steps.

I
squeezed
his
arm
.
“
I can’t believe you said that.” I made my voice deep and ominous. “
Step outside and I will show you the meaning of obstruction.
”

He grum
bled something under his breath, follo
wed by, “I will not allow any man
to insult you.
”

I felt the weight of his gaze on me.
“Hey, I had it under control.”

“’
Fuck you’
is under control?”

I
tried to sound serious, but it i
s hard when you
want to laugh
. “
I kind of like having my
personal
knight in shining armor. Someone to defend my honor. Gives me the warm fuzzies.
Though maybe you can hold off on threatening the next cop we lock horns with.
”

H
e unlo
cked the truck with the remote. “I will do my best, but no promises.”

“Banks!” Haney yelled. We looked back. The detective
ambled
down the steps, tie swinging
and
jacket flapping open. “Wait up.”

We waited. My
lips felt stiff
as he reached us, I didn’t have friendly feelings toward anything Provo PD at the moment.

He tried a smile, but dropped it as I stared stonily. “My partner was out of line.”

“Is that an apology? It’d mean something if it came from him.”

One eye squinched up. “A fake psychic took his
mom for thousands after his dad
died.”

I should give Stirland a break?
Sorry,
I a
m not the forgiving type
when it comes to blaming me for something I had nothing to do with
. “So he tars everyone with the same brush?”

“Bias has no place in law enforcement,” Royal said.

“Yeah, in a perfect world.”
Haney gave an apologetic shrug, “Drive safe,
”
and headed
back to
the PD.

Royal and I
got in
the car. I
humphed
as my rear hit the seat. Royal, wisely, said nothing more.

We
drove away, but headed south, not north back to Clarion. I wanted a look at that construction site
to reassure myself Lynn’s shade was not there. Not that I distrusted Mike, I just had to see for myself.

We found the place easily enough,
a
dusty
corner lot
with
an unbroken view of two sides
, the market’s skeleton set back about fifty feet from the road
. A
lthough we could not get
on the site
, I would have seen Lynn in the area marked off with
yellow tape if she died there.

She came
home on the
10th
, and
stopped
in Wendover
the
evening
of the 11th, so must have left for Utah that morning. S
he
stayed in Wendover only four hours,
and Wendover to Clarion is a four hour drive. She could have got to me early on the 12th.

Wendover to Provo is a two and a half hour drive.
The foreman
found
her the
morning of
the 12
th,
but not
that
early, which left a time gap
plenty
long enough for someone to stop her. And kill her.
It
added up

After stopping in Wendy’s for a
quick
lunch, we arrived in Clarion at
one
o’clock. I had to see to Mac before we headed for
Portland
, Oregon,
Lynn’s last
but one
appointment before she died.
Lynn saw the victims on the
8
th, then
RP on the
9
th
.
W
e
might have to give up on that one
, but I kept repeating the dates and that Lynn broke her practice of noting full names and locations in her address book over and over in my mind
.

Home again.
Royal
parked
the truck
in front of the garage.
I preceded him
inside
the house, but made sure he heard the alarm beepin
g away before I deactivated it.

I twitched an eyebrow at him. “Thought you’
d catch me out again, didn’t ya?
”

He made a lousy attempt to look glum, which made me chuckle. “I hoped to put you over my knee and paddle your derriere.”

“What is it with wanting to put me over
your knee?” As many times as he ha
d threatened, I still didn’t know whether or not to take him seriously.

He reached out as if to tweak the bodily part in question. I yelped and swatted at him.

Mac
scurried
into the hall as Royal
shut the front door
, then about-turned and
made a beeline for
his
favorite spot, the pantry door.