Hot Trick (A Detective Shelley Caldwell Novel) Page 16

  “But what if one of us isn’t?” Oriel spoke in a hushed tone, making me want to hear more. “What if Sebastian really is responsible?”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Yeah, right, I don’t know.”

  But what did she know? I was determined to find out.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  After questioning Sebastian and his employees as a group, Norelli and I split them up, interviewing them one at a time while the others cooled their heels. Norelli insisted on taking Sebastian, Silke and Tanya.

  I got DeGroot and Oriel.

  DeGroot gave me nothing but attitude. If he knew anything, I couldn’t get it out of him. I hoped Oriel would be more forthcoming. But like DeGroot, she hadn’t seen Snake Eyes or Tattoo Boy or any other gang member, hadn’t talked to anyone about the location of the gig, didn’t know anything about anything.

  Except…

  From what I’d overheard, Oriel apparently suspected something about Sebastian that she hadn’t yet given over.

  “How long have you been working for Sebastian?” I asked.

  “Just a couple of months.”

  “You know him well?”

  “Personally?” Oriel smiled. “What if I told you Sebastian doesn’t get personal with his employees?”

  “I thought you were his right hand.”

  Oriel studied her nails for a moment, then flicked her fingers in a magician-like gesture. “I’m very good at what I do.”

  Now I could take that two ways. Did she mean good getting down with Sebastian personally or professionally?

  I asked, “What do you think of your employer?”

  “He’s good at what he does too.”

  Again, like she might think herself superior. “I’m not talking about his escapes.”

  Oriel smiled again. “I’m not, either.”

  She was testing my limits and my meter was almost up. I didn’t like Oriel Leger trying to play me. I was beginning to dislike the woman herself. Why the hell did my sister hang out with her? Instinct told me Oriel was a witch.

  “Sebastian’s character,” I said. “Do you think he could be involved with the murders?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “You have something on him?”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Sure you do. You had an idea in mind.”

  Falling silent, Oriel suddenly avoided looking at me, but I didn’t buy her act. This was it, whatever doubt she wanted to plant in my mind.

  “What is it?” I pressed.

  “Nothing. Really.”

  Of course it was. “Let me be the judge of that.”

  “It could be a coincidence is all…”

  I gave her my best copper stare and waited while she made up her mind to tell me what she knew.

  “Okay, but you didn’t get this from me. I’m sure Sebastian is innocent and if he finds out I told you…well, I need the job.”

  I didn’t make any promises I couldn’t keep. “Go ahead.”

  “The night before the Martin woman’s murder,” she began, “I went to Sebastian’s loft to talk to him and saw him come out of the building with a dark-haired woman. I-I’m not sure, but it could have been Julie Martin.”

  Bull’s-eye. I’d just gotten the connection between him and Julie Martin that I’d been looking for.

  Assuming Oriel was telling the truth.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Hating the tension multiplying between him and Shelley, Jake decided to try talking to her again. Sebastian was big trouble and not of the human kind. And somehow Jake himself was unwittingly involved in Sebastian’s scheme. Maybe if he told Shelley about the photograph in Sebastian’s loft, she would be able to figure out the connection.

  Shelley’s apartment only provided another disappointment. The moment he opened the door, he knew she wasn’t home. His enhanced vision gave him an infrared-like ability to see through the darkened living room. He identified the cats taking cover. Would he never win over the little beasts?

  Jake waited for what seemed like hours but was probably thirty minutes before turning on the television to see a special middle-of-the-night newscast. Cameras were focused on a reporter standing in front of the Harold Washington Library. His gut tensed as he watched.

  “The victim was identified as Alan Forrest, the brother of prosecutor Matthew Forrest. Coincidentally, Matthew Forrest tried the Hernandez case. Two nights ago, Julie Martin, sister of Judge Bobby Rafferty, the judge on the Hernandez case, was also murdered. When asked if there was a connection, police declined comment.”

  This was no coincidence, Jake was certain. And Shelley was connected to the Hernandez case as the lead detective.

  Having stewed alone long enough, he decided to take matters into his own hands and worry about how Shelley would react to his interference later. What the hell was Sebastian up to? He had to be part of the murder setup.

  “You can come out now,” he called to the cats. “I’m leaving.”

  Not waiting to see if the beasts would come out of hiding, Jake snapped off the television and left the apartment. Ten minutes later, he parked his car down the block from Sebastian’s building.

  Rather than ring the doorbell, Jake decided to try a window first. Though he didn’t use his enhanced abilities often, preferring to live a human lifestyle, times like these called for creative measures. Certain that Sebastian was a supernatural as well, Jake needed to level the playing field as best he could. No one was around in the middle of the night, so he caught an air current and glided up to the second story. Though the apartment was dark, he could see every detail as he had in Shelley’s apartment, sort of like wearing night goggles. The scene was set in greens and blues. No red, no life.

  Sebastian wasn’t there.

  Figuring he would lift a window and climb inside to wait, maybe take a closer look-see at what the bastard had in his desk other than the photo, Jake reached out. But even with his superhuman strength, he couldn’t do more than make ineffectual contact with the wood frame. He should be able to rip the lock out of its seating.

  He tried again.

  Tried another window.

  And came to the conclusion that he was up against some kind of a shield. Although a human wouldn’t detect it, he could feel snakes crawling along his flesh.

  A sealed space spell.

  Magic.

  He should have known. Good thing he hadn’t underestimated Sebastian as Shelley had.

  Realizing he was probably on a fool’s errand, Jake set himself down and entered the building through the front entrance. The downstairs door lock gave way easily, but the second floor door handle wouldn’t so much as budge. Jake knew that no one was strong enough to break in. Except maybe another mage who knew how to break the spell.

  Figuring Sebastian had to come home sometime, Jake ebbed into the shadows of the staircase opposite the door to wait. Not long after, he heard loud footsteps tromping up the stairs. Jake’s pulse surged and he went on guard. A moment later, a dark figure stopped before the loft door.

  The energy emanating from Sebastian revealed the mage’s anger. Good. He wouldn’t have his usual control. Emotions would weaken him.

  The mage mumbled and waved his hand over the handle. With ease, the door clicked open, but vampire speed got Jake inside the loft before its resident.

  “What the hell!” Red-faced, Sebastian gaped at him.

  Jake didn’t flinch. “I thought it was time we had a face-to-face in private.”

  “I could have you arrested for—”

  “What?” Jake interrupted. “Stepping inside to talk to you? Don’t bother to tell me to get out, because I’m not going anywhere. And don’t try using your magic on me, because it won’t work,” he bluffed. The shield spell had kept him out of the apartment, but it hadn’t been aimed directly at him. He didn’t know what he could resist until tested. “But then you probably know that.”

  “How would I?”

 
; “You must know a lot about me, starting when I was a kid.”

  “You’re deluded.”

  Still, Sebastian closed the door before locking gazes with him. Jake could feel the mage probing at the edges of his mind like hot licks of fire. He put up his guard and probed right back, equally unsuccessfully. “I told you it wouldn’t work.”

  “Then I need to be more direct.”

  Sebastian lunged toward him, lips moving as he punched a fist at Jake’s chest. Jake was faster. He intercepted the hand and pulled it away from his body even as a paralyzing pulse shot through his palm.

  “You need to really know who you’re dealing with,” Jake warned, pretending the spell hadn’t affected him at all. He moved to the desk where the photos still lay spread out. As if his hand were fully functional, he touched the photo of the woman with a knuckle. “Your mother was beautiful.”

  “Don’t speak of her…you have no right.”

  Odd. Was that a note of jealousy in Sebastian’s voice?

  Jake turned to find the other man behind him. “You were close, then?” he asked, surreptitiously flexing his fingers. He urged life back into the hand in case he needed to defend himself against Sebastian again.

  “She was everything to me. She made me who I am.”

  Just as Jake’s mother had made him. Despite the fact that she’d been turned into a blood-slave, she’d done what she could to spare the innocent. His mother had given him a set of ethics to live by…and then she had committed vampire suicide to release him from his commitment to her.

  What about the mage’s mother?

  “Who are you, Sebastian Cole? And what do you want with me?”

  “Why do you think I want anything of you?”

  Jake picked up the photo of the boy he’d seen the other night. “Because of this. How did you get it? Why do you have it?”

  For a moment, Jake thought Sebastian wouldn’t say anything. He could feel him though. The part of him that was vampire could feed on emotions, and he opened himself up to read the mage.

  Anger…resentment…hatred.

  The hate so strong, Jake felt the emotion like a physical blow.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither did I,” Sebastian said, stepping back. “I was only a kid…a baby…when he started disappearing for days…weeks…months at a time.”

  “Who?” Jake asked, confused.

  Sebastian glared at him. Behind his luminous eyes, a darkness burned. “Jonathan Kinsella.”

  Uneasy now, Jake shook his head. “My father died before I was born.”

  “Your mother told him he couldn’t be in her life when she was turned. She feared she might hurt him when the blood lust came over her. He wouldn’t leave her, so she disappeared. He spent his life looking for her…and you.”

  “My father’s alive?”

  Sebastian shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. It’s been nearly twenty-five years.”

  Jake thought about it for a moment. His father…alive? “How do you fit into this?”

  “Your father sought out my mother, Lara, for help in finding his wife and son. Mama was the most powerful sorceress in New Orleans, born with her powers. But when it came to lust, she was only too human and became obsessed with her client.”

  A warning stirred Jake, a doubt he wasn’t prepared for, didn’t want to face. “And then what?” he asked quietly.

  “She used her powers to seduce him. He slept with her but wouldn’t commit himself. Said he was still married to his precious Elizabeth. Still wanted her and their child together…you.”

  Jake caught what Sebastian had brushed over. He stared at the other man’s face, searching for something…anything…recognizable. Not the eyes or the nose…but maybe the mouth…the intensity of expression. Surety struck Jake in the chest like the fist Sebastian had tried to punch through him, making it difficult for him to breathe.

  “Jonathan Kinsella was your father too?” Even if they each favored their mothers, how could he not have sensed this? “You’re my brother?”

  “You’re nothing to me.” The fire behind Sebastian’s eyes grew brighter. “Mama told me he loved her and would come back to us like he promised. And he did…until I was seven. That’s when his precious Elizabeth figured out where he was and sent that photo of you. I stole it from his wallet the night before he left us for good. He tossed my mother aside and went in search of his real family. Mama never got over it.”

  Obviously, neither had Sebastian. The realization took the air out of Jake’s sails.

  “He never found me. I had no idea…” No clue that a man could throw one son away to find another. “I’m sorry.” Feeling zero brotherly love from Sebastian, Jake asked, “What is it you want from me?”

  “I want you to feel what my mother felt, what destroyed her, what drove her so mad she eventually took her own life.”

  Jake did know what that felt like, but before he could say so, before he could reach out and connect with this man of his blood, Sebastian laughed, the sound cruel and heartless.

  “I want you to know what it’s like to lose the person you love most.”

  Jake’s anger flared. He understood now what Sebastian had been after. His hackles rose and the bones in his face scrambled as his jaw stretched to accommodate his lengthening canines.

  “Shelley is mine.”

  “Is she?” Sebastian challenged him. Fire burned brighter behind his irises, giving him an expression that went beyond wicked. “Ask her about her dreams. She’s invited me in. It’s only a matter of time before I have her in the flesh.”

  Sebastian smiled at him now. A smile of confidence that sickened Jake.

  Jake didn’t want to believe it. He wouldn’t. Shelley was his woman. The only person he loved and who loved him.

  His eyes burned and he literally saw red—Sebastian’s blood, the blood pulsing through his throat, especially. Jake tracked it, hungered for it, considered doing what he’d sworn he would never do. It took every ounce of willpower to keep his vampire half in check.

  Shelley would never betray him, and he wouldn’t let her be used as a pawn in a game of revenge.

  “Was Benita Rivera part of your plan to get to Shelley?”

  “Everything I’ve done was to get to you.”

  “Including murder? Two people are dead now,” Jake said, not knowing whether he could believe the mage was innocent. “Two people connected to the Hernandez case and therefore to you.”

  “You can’t prove I’ve done anything wrong.”

  “Nor you about me,” Jake said, heading for the door.

  He stopped and turned to face the burning eyes, a wave of Sebastian’s fury washing over him. The intensity pressed against him like a great weight. They were evenly matched if only in different ways, he thought, and both equally angry. But Jake felt something more.

  This man was his blood.

  His half-brother.

  Possibly the only family he had left on earth.

  Now they’d found each other. Rather, Sebastian had found him…to destroy the life Jake had made for himself.

  “I wish I had known,” he said. Sebastian thought he’d been cheated in life, but he couldn’t comprehend the hell Jake had lived through, what it was like serving his mother’s blood lust without succumbing himself. “At least you knew our father, had him for seven years more than I did. I could have used a father.” He started to go. “I could have used a brother.”

  A moment’s confusion crossed Sebastian’s twisted expression but Jake turned his back on him and left.

  Chapter Forty

  Relieved that I got through some down time without a nocturnal visit from Sebastian—how had he missed the opportunity?—I re-entered the bullpen to find it unusually quiet. No Norelli. Probably out of the office, catching up with Forrest’s widow without me.

  As far as I knew, we got nothing from Sebastian’s team. Nothing but attitude and an unsubstantiated connection between Sebastian and Julie Martin. The need for r
esolution on this case nagged at me, so I put in another call to Brogan. Like before, I got his voice mail. Great, a banshee who screened his calls.

  Throwing myself into the chair at my desk, I stared at the computer for a moment before bringing up the internet. I did a search for Edmund Fox and was rewarded with thousands of hits. I started going through them one at a time.

  The newest hits mostly referred to his being debunked by Sebastian. I went back further, checked out every story. Fox was a piece of work, using his skills of illusion to cover the fact he was a charlatan. A con man.

  Though getting bleary-eyed, I kept on. Only several thousand articles to go. I figured I was wasting my time, but didn’t have anything else solid to go on.

  And then I linked to an entertainment magazine article about a charity event written several years ago. It had accompanying photographs, including one of Fox with a date. I barely glanced at it, then took a better look. Her hair was long and streaked with magenta and the face was a little younger, but I was staring at a likeness of Tanya Janicek, Sebastian’s publicity diva. And the way she was looking up at Fox…

  “Well, well, well.”

  I remembered Tanya’s outburst about Fox at Sebastian’s loft. Had that been real or staged? Had Fox gotten to her? Conned her into giving up information about the time and place of the escapes?

  One way to find out.

  Just then, my cell sang to me. I checked the ID and flipped it open.

  “Brogan. It’s about time. Where have you been?”

  “I was needing a little private time, a little distraction, if you know what I mean, Detective.”

  Not wanting clarification—I feared too much information—I asked, “In the middle of two murders?”

  “I don’t ask what you do with your every minute.”

  “Right now, consider yourself mine, Brogan.”

  “To what end?”

  “To catch a murderer, of course.”

  “I don’t catch them. That’s your job. I just see them happening before they really do.”

  A week ago, I never would have believed this. A week ago, I would never have believed I’d inherited my Dad’s abilities, whatever they were. If Silke were any indication, sensitive didn’t quite describe it. A week ago, I would never have believed our pragmatic mother would share knowledge she so obviously wanted to deny.