Stained (17 page)

Thorn took a drink of water. “He said at first he wanted me to follow him, to be by his side as his sister. But I could tell something was off about him so I said no and then he tried to scare me into it and I still said no and warded myself against him.”

“But he still follows you?”

“He wants to kill me now. He’s said if I won’t join him, then I’m against him.” Her voice was without inflection. “He followed me to Japan and tortured my master and my best friend, trying to find me,” Thorn said softly. Her eyes welled as she remembered. Fat tears slid down her cheeks.

Sé put his hand on hers and squeezed, “I’m sorry.”

“I am too. If they hadn’t been loyal to me, if they hadn’t been people I cared about, they would have been safe. They were decent, kind people. Caleb is vile. He is cruel. He lives off the grid and he is immensely powerful in the dark arts.”

“Can we stop him?”

Sé saw fire replace the tears. “I will die trying. He’s gone too far for too long. No one else can stop him. I want my life back.” She hesitated, met his eyes. “I want to care again. I’m tired of running. I wasn’t traveling all those years, Sé, I was running.” Sé nodded, nothing could have distracted him from her words. “Caleb wants to strip me of my powers and kill me. I’ve got to be ready for him.”

Thorn put more food in her mouth and chewed slowly. Sé did the same. He thought about what Thorn had told him. He believed her. As a cop and as a man. As a man, he was enraged and torn with worry.

“Tell me about Caleb, what does he look like?” Sé asked, forcing himself to use his skill rather than his feelings. Rationally he knew a man who acted on emotion was a man more easily defeated.

“He’s about five feet eleven inches, I’d guess. He has long black hair that he keeps tied back in a ponytail. My coloring. He wears velvet jackets and poet shirts, at least he did the last time I saw him. Sorta sets his own style. He can be charming in a sociopathic way. I don’t think he has a familiar like Raven. He’s too solitary for that.”

Sé grunted. “Sounds like a wannabe to me.”

“Don’t let his appearance fool you. He is wicked smart and has lightning fast reflexes. He will be very difficult to beat.” She met his eyes and spoke slowly for emphasis. “He may win.”

“Maybe you should run again, Thorn.” Concern clawed at his gut. This reaction wasn’t his way of dealing with danger. He stood fast and dealt with his problems, but he found another set of rules applied to what he wanted for her safety.

“No, it has to stop. All these innocent people killed. He enjoys it. He has to be stopped, Sé.” Thorn squeezed his hand back. “I’ll be okay. I just need to do some studying and fast.”

“What do you need to do that?”

“My books, but they’re at my place. They were spelled to look like ordinary books so no one would mess with them.” She smiled ruefully.

Sé grinned. “It worked. We didn’t find a trace of anything magickal there. I’d wondered how you cleaned it out so fast.”

“Everything was spelled. There wasn’t time to move anything. It’s all there still, just looks like something mundane.” She took a roll of sushi and popped it into her mouth. They ate for a while in amiable silence.

Just as they were finishing their meal, Sé’s beeper went off. He looked at it and frowned. He grabbed his cell phone and called his partner.

“O’Bradigen.”

“We got two more murders and a witness to one of them.”

“What? Who were they?”

“A man with a fresh tat named Sean O’Hara and a biker by the name of Harley Polski. Sean’s tat was skinned and then he was beheaded like the rest. The biker was just beheaded even though he had tattoos covering him. The biker’s murder had the witness, a Deirdre Lovejoy. I guess our killer was trying to find out where Thorn was. He was mighty pissed off he couldn’t find her. Cut up the biker a bit before he took the head off.”

Sé was silent. It exonerated Thorn and put her at greater risk at the same time. He looked up at her with worry. She looked scared but determined. Waiting to hear what he’d heard.

“What’s next?” Sé asked. “Where do you need me? I’m in the city.”

“The FBI is processing the scenes. It would help if you got your ass over here. It looks like Thorn is off the hook unless I can prove she was an accomplice, but even I can see that’s a long shot.” Scettico sighed in disgust. “I really wanted her for this, Sé. She fit so perfectly.”

Sé let his temper settle before he answered. “I’ll bet Kate is still looking for a way to nail her. We always knew a female serial was unlikely.”

“Well, Kate is really pissed. You should have seen her. She can’t back out now though. She was right. These cases fit too many open cases in a few other states. It might be this guy was following Thorn for a while now.” Sé searched Thorn’s face and rubbed his temple. Did she know how close she had come in the past?

“I’ll leave word with her Uncle so that she knows it’s safe to come back home now. We’ll put a patrol on her house to keep a watch out for her. I’ll meet you when I get back to Berkeley,” Sé said.

“Good enough.” They disconnected.

Thorn looked at him expectantly. Sé didn’t know how to tell her. The good and the bad, it was all ugly.

“There were two murders last night. Sean and Harley.”

“Fucking bastard!” Thorn spit out.

“He skinned Sean but tortured Harley trying to find you.”

“Oh, poor Harley.” Her eyes filled with tears again.

“Deirdre saw him and gave us a description so you are no longer a suspect. You can go home.”

“At too high a cost. I’ll call Uncle right now.” She reached into her bag and took out the cell phone she had bought but stopped before she dialed. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

Sé growled, “Kate Simms is still trying to nail your ass.”

Thorn dialed. It rang and rang. There was no answer, finally going to voice mail. “That’s odd. Uncle always answers his phone. He even takes it to the bathroom with him. He’s always worried he’ll miss a call. Something’s wrong, Sé.”

“Let’s head over there and see. We’re done here anyway.”

They left the restaurant and got on their bikes. Raven had found a nice fat rat to gorge on while they ate. He grumbled about having to fly after so heavy a meal. They wound their way slowly through the people and cars until they passed the on-ramps to the Bay Bridge and gained the freeway. Then Sé opened up and Thorn followed. They weaved between cars on the freeway, eating exhaust and narrowly missing bumpers. They made it to Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in record time. As they approached Stained they saw ambulances, and police cars blocking the street. A large crowd had gathered and a fire truck was parked directly in front of Stained. Thorn gasped.

They parked their bikes as close as they could and then Sé used his badge to get them closer to the scene. Sé pushed his way through curious onlookers and worried shopkeepers. He grabbed Thorn’s hand to pull her along. The crowd was dense and he felt a sick cop feeling as they got closer. Smoked billowed out of Thorn’s windows above her shop. Glass lay shattered on the sidewalk where the front windows had exploded.

Raven circled and cawed loudly. Sé followed his movement. Below the big bird, two paramedics wheeled Uncle Charles on a gurney. Ambulance doors were open to receive the frail cargo. Sé’s heart dropped. He pulled Thorn closer. As one, they ran to catch up with the paramedics.

“What’s wrong with him,” Thorn demanded, when they reached him. “I’m his niece.”

“He’s unconscious. We can’t tell everything yet. He’s pretty frail looking. Looks like his hip is broken. Found him upstairs. There was a lot of smoke so he was breathing that too. We want to roll so if you want to follow, we’re going to Alta Bates,” the paramedic said, not unkindly.

Thorn went for her bike. Sé had a hard time keeping up with her.

“I’m going to find out what happened here and meet you at the hospital, okay?” Sé said to her. “He’ll be okay, Thorn. He’s strong.”

“It was Caleb, Sé,” Thorn said, pulling her hands through her hair. “I had the damn place warded. I don’t know how he got in.” She kicked her bike on. “I’ll kill him if Uncle dies.” The look in her eyes promised retribution. Sé let go of her arm as she left to follow the ambulance.

Sé went back to the epicenter of the chaos. Gwynn and Reese were being treated for lacerations because of the glass. Their clients had been spared everything but a scratch or two. A man with café-latte colored skin and close shaven hair walked cautiously up to Sé.

“Detective,” Gérard’s voice was tense when he spoke. “There’s bad blood between Thorn and me, but it must end. She needs my help. This evil,” he waved his hand at the destruction, “is great and Thorn needs help to defeat it.”

“If there’s bad blood, why should I take a message to her? Why should she or I trust you?”

“This evil one affects us all. My magick is different from hers but it is not evil. She misunderstood. I was not trying to hurt anyone. You must tell her that.” Sé considered him. His cop sense told him the witch was sincere.

“I’ll tell her. What she chooses to do is up to her.”

“Of course,” Gérard said and he slipped back into the crowd.

Sé watched him walk away, wondering what he could do to help. Then he got caught up in the mess before him.

The area was soon covered with yellow police tape. Firemen cleared the apartment above the shop and said it was safe to enter. Sé told the cops he was going up. They had too much to deal with downstairs to argue. Raven landed on his shoulder when he went into the building.

“Can’t go hosthpital,” the bird said. Sé nodded in understanding and reached up to stroke him trying to offer comfort. Uncle was a friend of Raven’s and being away from Thorn had to be difficult.

They made their way through the store and up the back stairs. Sé opened the back door of the shop to let the smoky air out. The stairs were intact. He opened the door and took in a harsh breath and started coughing.

The rooms had been destroyed. Everything was torn apart and soaking wet. The sprinkler system had gone off. Curtains hung off the rods in shreds. The glass in the windows was blown out. The mattress leaked foam and stuffing, like a broken rag doll. The book-case was blackened and the floor around it scorched. Thorn’s wards had worked on her books they looked untouched. The comfortable chairs and couches were smoldering empty carcasses of steel and charred wood causing all the smoke. They must have burned in a flash of fire for the sprinklers to have no effect. The bamboo flooring underneath was charred and ugly. The refrigerator was blown apart. The apartment was a total loss. She wouldn’t be able to stay here.

Sé called a cleaning crew he knew and scheduled them to come over, as soon as crime scene investigators cleared the scene, to board up the windows for Thorn’s apartment and Stained. He’d have them remove the ruined furniture as well and clean up what they could.

“Caleb bad bad man,” Raven cawed.

“Yes,” Sé said.

“Thorn in trouble.”

“Yes. Come on, Raven, let’s get out of here.”

They made their way through the sodden mess. He’d have to bring Thorn back to get clothes and her books. He hoped the cleaning crew had finished their work by then. When they got down the stairs, he approached Gwynn and Reese. They looked stunned.

“Reese, do you remember me? I’m Detective O’Bradigen.”

“Yes, Sé, isn’t it?” She held out her good hand, the other was wrapped in gauze. Sé took it and touched it gently, in lieu of a shake.

“Yes, Sé. How are you doing? Are you and Gwynn okay?”

“Yeah, well, no. We both have some nasty cuts. We won’t be able to work for a while.”

“I’m sorry,” Sé told them simply, his concern and regret evident in his expression. “Can you tell me anything about how it happened?” Sé asked, as he got down on their level so he could be eye to eye.

Gwynn looked up, her eyes glassy with tears. “This man came in and said, ‘I know she’s here’. Then he flicked his hand back at the windows and they exploded. I don’t know whether he had explosives on them or what, but it was chaos after that. Everyone was screaming and there was blood all over,” she whispered the last bit.

Reese put her arm around Gwynn, “We looked for the man but didn’t see him. Then we heard the explosions and the yelling from upstairs. We’d called 911 by then. When we smelled smoke we called them back and asked for a fire truck too. We knew Charlie was upstairs and I went to try and get him but the dark-haired guy pushed me down the stairs coming out of the apartment…by then the firemen were here. He just walked past them like he was invisible. They took over.”

“Thorn will be grateful to you for trying to save him.”

“Thorn is like family so that makes Charlie family too.” Reese shrugged. “How is he? He looked pretty rough when they brought him down.” She shook her head. “He’s so nice. I hope he’s okay.”

“He’s unconscious, broken hip and smoke inhalation, we don’t know what else,” Sé said. “They took him to Alta Bates. Thorn followed on her bike.”

“Is she still wanted by you guys? I guess not if you’re here and she’s there?”

“No, we know it’s the guy who was here this afternoon. You are all very lucky,” Sé said, as he squeezed her shoulder.

Reese let out a shaky sigh and hugged Gwynn tighter.

“Have you given your statement to the other policemen?”

“Yeah, just before you,” Reese said.

“Good, go home. Rest. Let Thorn call you when things settle down. I’m sure she has insurance that will cover all this. I’ve already called a cleanup crew who will board up the windows and clean up the glass,” Sé said, getting up from a crouching position. “I’m going to the hospital to see how she and Charles are doing.”

“Give them our love,” Gwynn said. “Keep them safe, Detective.”

“I will. Stay safe.”