Chapter 15

THE GLANG’S ALL HERE

Somehow, I managed to force out the words. “Where did you get that?”

Chloe’s gaze strayed downward to the medallion revealed by the deep V of the long-sleeved T-shirt she was wearing. “This? Jack gave it to me. I guess it belonged to his aunt. It was with my jewelry when I was looking through it this morning, so I thought I might as well wear it as a sort of way of letting Jack know I was sorry about what happened.”

“‘Jack’s aunt’?” I echoed. It was probably a good thing I was sitting down, or otherwise my suddenly shaky limbs might have betrayed me. “Who was his aunt?”

Looking mystified at my sudden interest in the heirloom she wore, Chloe replied, “Her name was Athene Kappas. She was Jack’s dad’s younger sister. I guess she died a couple of years ago in a car crash.”

I forced myself to take a breath, then another. Yes, Athene had died almost three years earlier, in a crash caused by a hex that Lucien Dumond’s evil younger brother had placed on the car owned by Travis Cox, who was still Globe’s one and only Uber/Lyft driver.

But….

If she had been Max Speros’ younger sister — separated by a gap that must have been at least ten years or more — then why didn’t they have the same name? True, I didn’t know for an absolute fact that Athene had never been married, but she also never gave the impression that she’d been married and divorced, either.

All right. I needed to take this one step at a time.

Before I could formulate my next question, though, Chloe went on, “I guess she went by Kappas because that was Jack’s grandmother’s last name. Something about not wanting to perpetuate the oppression of the patriarchy.”

Well, I had to admit that sounded like something Athene would say.

Gathering myself, I said, “Was Jack close to his aunt?”

“Not really,” Chloe replied. “He didn’t talk about her very much. He just said that she’d fought with his father years ago when Jack was in junior high and didn’t have anything to do with the family after that.”

Hmm. I couldn’t pretend to know the exact timeline of Athene’s involvement with Lucien and GLANG, but I’d gotten the impression that they’d been together for at least seven or eight years, maybe longer.

Had that long-ago quarrel stemmed from her decision to enter the world of the occult and join the guild?

If it had, that wouldn’t surprise me very much. A lot of families had a difficult time accepting that their family members had chosen a different path from theirs.

“I guess the medallion was with Athene’s stuff, and it all came to Jack’s dad because she didn’t have any other close family,” Chloe said. “And his dad gave it to Jack, and Jack gave it to me because he thought it was pretty.” She stopped there and gave me a probing look. “Why would it be important? It’s just a pretty necklace, right?”

Oh, no, it was much more than that. I didn’t think it was necessarily magical, but the medallion certainly represented a period in my life I would much rather have forgotten. As a member of L.A.’s psychic community, I’d been invited to Lucien’s compound in Encino several times and had been unlucky enough to catch his eye. In fact, his unhealthy interest in me was the whole reason I’d fled Southern California in the first place.

“No,” I said, then paused. While I really didn’t want to go into the whole story, I knew I needed to tell Chloe why the medallion was important, and why it had a connection to me that she probably would never have guessed.

So I launched into the narrative as best I could, explaining what GLANG was, who had founded it — and how Jack’s aunt Athene had been Lucien Dumond’s right-hand woman, only to follow him in death during his brother Eugene’s unholy quest to get his hands on Lucien’s not-inconsiderable fortune…the same fortune that had come to me.

“You knew Jack’s aunt?” Chloe breathed. “That’s…wild.”

Well, I supposed that was one word for it. “She was…an interesting person. And she definitely didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

Those words seemed to echo in my mind. They weren’t so different from what I’d thought about poor Jack Speros’s death only a few days earlier.

Jack Speros’s death….

And then the cards flashed through my mind. The Devil…the Seven of Swords.

The Emperor.

Oh, dear Goddess.

“What is it?” Chloe asked then, brows drawing together in worry. “You’re white as a sheet.”

Of course I was. Because the terrible truth had awakened in me as I thought of the way Athene Kappas had been murdered, how someone had placed a hex on Travis’s car…just as they’d placed a hex on mine.

Jack’s murderer wasn’t from Globe.

The Emperor card could also signify a father figure.

Jack’s father, who’d been Athene’s older brother.

No wonder I couldn’t get Bryce Arsenault to neatly fit into the puzzle no matter how much I tried.

“Max Speros killed Jack,” I whispered.

Chloe stared at me as though I’d lost my mind. In a way, I wished I had. It would have been easier than acknowledging that a father could do such a terrible thing to his son.

“Why would you say that?”

I rubbed my suddenly damp palms on the knees of my leggings, the only kind of pants my waistline would tolerate these days.

“You told me that Jack kept talking about getting married,” I said, and Chloe nodded, expression still mystified.

“He did. But why would that make his father want to kill him?”

“Oh, I doubt he had murder on his mind at first,” I replied. The image was becoming slowly clearer in my mind, buoyed by all the things the cards and the pendulum had already told me.

Temptation. Betrayal.

“I don’t know exactly how,” I went on. “But somehow, Max Speros must have discovered that the half-sister you’d never met was the same woman that Lucien Dumond had left all his money to. He must have wanted Jack to marry you so he could figure out a way to get me to give you some…or maybe all…of the money.”

“That seems like a pretty crazy plan,” Chloe said, now looking even more dubious.

“People do crazy things when millions of dollars are at stake,” I replied.

She blinked. “That Lucien guy left you that much money?”

“Yes. And it’s been earning interest ever since. Chloe…it’s a lot.”

My comment made her go quiet for a moment. When she spoke again, her voice trembled…and I couldn’t really blame her.

“Is that why Jack asked me out in the first place? Because his father thought he could get to that money through me?”

My heart ached for her. And the horrible thing was, I couldn’t say for sure. Not without a whole lot more facts in hand than I currently had.

“I don’t know,” I said gently. “It’s possible that Max Speros only learned of the connection after you’d been with Jack for a while.”

She didn’t reply at first, maybe because she was trying out the different scenarios in her mind and trying to decide which one seemed more plausible. “But why would Mr. Speros even think he was entitled to that money?”

At least there we were on slightly more neutral ground. “Probably because he would have known that Athene was Lucien’s lieutenant, for lack of a better word. It would only have made sense that Lucien’s money would have gone to her upon his death, since I knew he didn’t want to leave it to his family, and of course he couldn’t have known that she would die shortly after he did. Because Lucien didn’t know who he could trust, he left the money to me instead.”

Mostly on a whim, because Lucien Dumond, a double Scorpio who’d definitely lived up to the destiny the stars had dictated to him, had a twisted sense of humor. It amused him to make the woman who’d fled the state rather than succumb to his dubious charms the beneficiary of his vast estate, rather than leave it to the parents who’d raised his murderous brother…or to the followers who had often renounced their own families rather than abandon GLANG.

Just like Athene, apparently.

“I still don’t understand why Mr. Speros would kill Jack,” Chloe said. Now she sounded almost plaintive, as if her mind didn’t want to accept the horrible truth that the man who’d acted as though he wanted to accept her into his family could do such an awful thing. “I mean, we were broken up. There wasn’t anything else he could have done to keep us together.”

But I knew that individuals in pursuit of millions of dollars didn’t give up so easily. However, we were talking about people who’d been in her life for several years, people she didn’t want to believe could be capable of such terrible things.

“Maybe not at first look,” I said. “But why do you think Jack was here in Globe that night?”

Chloe stared back at me, dawning comprehension in her face. “Because his father made him come here to try to get me back?”

“That seems the most plausible explanation.”

She shook her head then, confusion returning to her expression. “But why would he have killed Jack if he was doing what his father told him to do?”

A very good question. It seemed to me that we’d reached the point where we couldn’t waste any more time on speculation.

No, we needed to get to the heart of the matter.

“Are Jack’s parents still here in Globe?”

“I — I don’t know for sure,” Chloe replied. Then, as comprehension appeared to sink in, she added in worried tones, “You’re not actually going to try to talk to them, are you?”

“Of course,” I said. “That’s the only way to get to the bottom of this. But don’t worry,” I went on, knowing I needed to say something to allay her fears, “We’re going to have backup.”

Obviously, I wasn’t crazy enough to confront the Speroses on my own, although I’d performed similar feats of foolhardiness in the past. Now, though, I had the baby’s safety to worry about as well as my own, and I figured there weren’t a lot of things more intimidating than my six-foot-six police chief husband.

He’d listened to the appalling story with a deepening frown, and then reluctantly agreed to go to the Airbnb where Jack’s parents were staying.

“But I’ve got Henry’s number locked and loaded,” Calvin added, touching the pocket where he kept his cell phone.

That was fine by me. I didn’t have any qualms about calling in the cavalry if things turned nasty. Besides, Globe wasn’t my husband’s jurisdiction, and if Max and Leslie Speros ended up spilling the beans about their son’s murder, then the local police would have to be the ones to make the arrest.

“You’re staying here, though,” I told Chloe, and at once her slate-colored eyes flashed with rebellious fire.

“I have a right to hear what they have to say,” she said. “Jack was my boyfriend, you know.”

“Ex-boyfriend,” I reminded her gently, and she seemed to deflate a little.

“Okay, fine,” she said. “But still, I deserve to know what really happened to him. And don’t try telling me it isn’t safe, because if you’re willing to go in there when you’re about to pop at any second, I don’t want to hear it.”

A quick glance at my husband told me he was doing his best to hold back a smile.

And Chloe had a point.

“All right,” I said. “But you’ll let Calvin and me do most of the talking…and you’ll have your phone in hand, ready to call 9-1-1, just in case.”

This must have seemed a simple enough accommodation to make, because she didn’t try to argue but only nodded.

“I’m good with that.”

There didn’t seem to be much point in delaying…especially since it was now inching toward eleven, which I knew was the check-out time for Mavis’s Airbnbs. Quite possibly, Max and Leslie had already left to make the long drive back to Southern California, and we’d have to figure out some other way to confront them with my suspicions.

Exactly how, I had no idea. There was no way I could travel to L.A. in my condition, and this wasn’t exactly the sort of meeting that would have the same impact if conducted via Zoom.

None of us said much on the drive over to their vacation rental. My mind kept playing with scenarios, trying to figure out which one would be worse…to find them already gone, or to have to face them after all.

Calvin pulled up to the curb in front of the Airbnb and parked. At once, Chloe opened her door and got out, but I waited for my husband to come around and help me down from the passenger seat. Not for the first time, I reflected how good it would feel to have this over with, to not feel as if my body was completely alien to me. Yes, all the baby books I’d read had said it would still feel forever altered once I’d given birth, but still, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about toppling over like a bowling pin at an inopportune moment.

With Calvin’s hand in mine and Chloe tagging along only a foot or so behind, we made our way to the front door. He knocked, and I almost held my breath, wondering whether anyone was going to answer it after all.

But then Leslie Speros opened the door, and almost at once, her eyes widened in surprise as she took in the three of us standing outside on the porch.

However, her tone wasn’t quite as hostile as I’d been fearing. “Can I help you with something? We were just about to leave.”

“I’m sorry to catch you at the last minute like this,” I said. “But there was something Chloe and I needed to talk to you about.”

One of Leslie’s brows lifted, and I couldn’t help noticing the way she glanced over at Calvin, as if trying to figure out why he was there if this was a matter that only involved my sister and me.

“My car’s in the shop, so Calvin offered to drive,” I said.

It seemed that explanation was enough to convince her, because she stepped out of the way and let us inside. However, I noticed how her hand shook as she reached out to close the door, and I had a feeling she wasn’t quite as casual as she wanted the rest of us to believe.

Several weekender bags sat near the couch, so it seemed she’d been telling the truth when she’d informed us that she and her husband were about to head back to California. In fact, Max Speros came into the living room right then, a frown creasing his forehead as he took in his unexpected visitors.

But, like his wife, he sounded cordial enough as he said, “Good morning. Is there something we can help you with?”

“Selena said she and Chloe had something they needed to talk to us about.”

Max’s gaze flicked over to my sister and then back to me. “Oh?”

This was going to be a lot harder than I’d thought, especially with how normal they were both acting. Was it possible that I’d made a hideous mistake and that they were both perfectly innocent?

But then Max’s aura emerged, like a monsoon thundercloud welling up from the dry desert floor, grayish black, shot through with yellowish bursts like foul lightning.

That wasn’t the aura of an innocent man.

No, I thought as my stomach twisted in disgust, it was one that revealed how truly evil he was.

“I know you killed your son,” I said clearly, and Leslie’s hand went to her mouth.

Something about the gesture was a little too practiced, though, a little too theatrical. In that moment — especially when her own bruised aura emerged for a split second, only to disappear again — I knew she was just as guilty as her husband.

Of course. The Queen of Cups, reversed. Co-dependency, weakness.

She’d wanted that money, too…enough that she was just fine with emotional blackmail and even murder to get it.

“That’s ridiculous,” Max Speros said, his tone cold enough to drop the temperature in the room by at least ten degrees. “And utterly insulting.”

“No, it’s true,” Chloe chimed in. “Selena told me about Lucien Dumond’s money and your sister Athene. It makes total sense — you thought you could get to Selena’s inheritance by going through me. I guess my question is, did you encourage Jack to date me, or was it just a stroke of luck that your son started seeing the half-sister of the woman who inherited the money you thought you were entitled to?”

For a long moment, neither Max nor Leslie said anything, and I wondered what I would do if they tried to stonewall us. I supposed I had enough evidence that I could go to Henry Lewis and hope he’d think it was sufficient to place them both under arrest, but I couldn’t be sure of that.

Then Max Speros’ mouth quirked in a lopsided smile. There was absolutely no humor in his expression, though, and I wondered if the smile had turned out so crooked because he couldn’t quite get all his facial muscles to obey.

“I think you need to leave,” he said, but Calvin stepped forward, expression utterly blank.

When he looked like that, anyone who knew him well also knew they shouldn’t fool around.

“Chloe asked you a question.”

That was all he said, but I saw the way his hand rested on his hip — the same hip where he was wearing his service revolver. I’d never once seen him fire it, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t…in the right situation.

And although I was halfway worried that Max would still challenge him, would say this wasn’t his jurisdiction and he needed to butt out, it seemed Jack’s father was a little fuzzy on that aspect of the situation. He forced a chuckle that didn’t fool any of us, then said, “I don’t have to say anything without a lawyer present.”

“You’re not under arrest, Mr. Speros,” Calvin replied. “The Miranda laws don’t apply.”

“Maybe not,” Leslie put in, her face white with strain, “but that also doesn’t mean we have to stand here and listen to these sorts of horrible accusations.”

Stalemate. I allowed myself the smallest of glances toward my husband, but his attention was fixed on the Speroses, not me.

But then Chloe stepped forward, chin up. “You made him date me,” she said, her voice firm, dark gray eyes blazing with fury. “You made him do whatever he had to so we’d stay together. And then when we broke up, you wouldn’t let him walk away. What happened that night, Mr. Speros? Did Jack finally grow a spine, and you strangled him because you realized he wasn’t any use to you and he might tell me the truth about what was really going on?”

No response…except maybe the smallest twitch of one of the muscles near Max’s left eye.

But that was enough for me.

And yet I still wanted to know for sure.

“How did Jack get in Chloe’s Airbnb?” I pressed, ignoring Max Speros’ continuing silence. “There wasn’t any sign of forced entry. Did one of you pick the lock?”

Now a flicker of contempt showed in his dark eyes. “No need for that. Or did you think that my sister Athene was the only one in our family with any magical ability?”

Of course. He’d used some kind of charm to open the lock…just as he’d probably placed that hex on my car. I couldn’t know for sure whether he’d been trying to kill me or simply move me off the chessboard so I wouldn’t continue trying to track down his son’s killer. And when that gambit had failed, he and his wife had decided the best thing to do was to get the heck out of Dodge and do everything they could to make sure suspicion never fell on them.

Not that their plans really mattered at his point.

He raised his hands — to do what, I wasn’t sure, since I didn’t practice the kind of dark magic utilized by practitioners of the black arts.

Chloe made a move forward. To protect me against the coming blast?

I didn’t have a chance to find out, because at the same moment, Calvin’s gun went off, impossibly loud in the confined space.

A bright red stain appeared on the knee of Max Speros’s jeans, and he let out a cry of pain, whatever spell he’d been intending to cast forgotten as he fell to the floor. His wife uttered a shocked sound as well and dropped to her knees next to him.

Grim-faced, Calvin holstered his gun and then unclipped the handcuffs he’d had hanging from his belt. “Max Speros, I’m placing you under arrest for the murder of your son, Jack Speros.”

The room seemed to spin around me. I wondered if the sudden dizziness was just the aftermath of hearing the pistol go off in the small room, but then an odd wetness soaked my leggings, making me look down in sudden comprehension.

“Good timing,” I said.

“Because I think my water just broke.”