20. Sinclair

Matt drove us back to his house, then gave Jayne and me the use of his SUV again. He dropped the key fob into my hand. "If you need me to get Dexter, just say the word."

I nodded. "We will."

Jayne grinned. "We won't. But the offer is appreciated all the same."

With a little snort, Matt went into the house. We went back to the RV to get ready to see the police commissioner. I changed into dark-wash jeans, a dark, heather blue T-shirt, and my black leather jacket.

Jayne kept the same dress on but switched out her black cardigan for a black and purple tie-dyed zip-front hoodie. She changed her black flats for a pair of crisp white tennis shoes.

I was glad. Twice I'd noticed her stretching her back or rubbing at it. The extra weight she was carrying had to be affecting her. The tennis shoes had more support than the flats, and what mattered most was her taking care of herself.

Besides, she was beautiful in anything she wore.

We arrived at the police station a few minutes before one and approached the front desk. "Sinclair Crowe and Jayne Frost. We have an appointment with Commissioner Tyson."

The man behind the desk nodded. "He just called up to say he was expecting you." He pressed a button, and a buzzer sounded. He nodded at the door on the right. "Come through, and I'll show you back."

We followed him to Darryl Tyson's office. Darryl greeted us with a smile and handshakes. "Welcome, folks. Have a seat. Birdie Caruthers sure is a fan of yours."

Jayne smiled. "We're pretty big fans of Birdie's, too."

He shut the door and went to sit behind his desk. "Since my fiancée's daughter, Effie, who's also my goddaughter, has moved to Nocturne Falls, we've been spending a little time there. It's a great place. Thinking about buying a condo there, in fact. Is that where you folks are from?"

I nodded. "We were. We lived there a few years. I had a doughnut shop there. Zombie Donuts. Highly recommend a visit next time you're there. The man who bought it from me might be a better doughnut man than I was. Anyway, I'm from Nevada, and Jayne's originally from the North Pole. Now we travel the country in an RV, doing visits at the toy stores her family owns and operates."

Darryl got a knowing twinkle in his eyes as he looked at Jayne. "Your family being…"

"I suppose Birdie told you?" Jayne asked.

"She did, but being a law enforcement officer means I like to hear things direct from the source. Is your father really Jack Frost?"

"He is," Jayne confirmed. "And my uncle is Santa Claus himself."

"I'll be," Darryl said, shaking his head. "Does that mean if I don't make you happy, I go on the naughty list?"

Jayne laughed. "I wasn't going to mention that, but since you brought it up…"

He chuckled. "Well, Birdie also told me you were a winter elf and your husband is a necromancer?" His brow wrinkled as he looked at Sin. "That so?"

"Yes, sir, I am."

"Sounds dangerous."

"My powers are well-controlled. I rarely use them, if that makes you feel better."

He gave a thoughtful nod. "I'm just an ordinary human, but Leonie, my fiancée, she's a witch. And Effie's guy, he's a vampire. I'm getting used to living my life with magic. Although you could say living in New Orleans means I've been doing that for some time, whether I realized it or not."

"I'm sure you have been." I wondered how much magic he'd begun to notice, now that he was learning about it.

Darryl spoked to Jayne next. "And you're a winter elf?"

"That's right."

"What does that mean exactly? Birdie didn't really elaborate."

Jayne pulled her hair back. "Can you see my ears? That they're pointed? Some humans, after they've been around magic awhile, start to pick up on things they wouldn't have noticed otherwise."

His eyes narrowed, then widened. "I can. How about that? So, you're really an elf. Like in Lord of the Rings ?"

She laughed. "Sort of, I guess? As a winter elf, the magic I do is winter-based."

"Would it be impolite of me to ask for a demonstration?"

Jayne liked showing off her magic. I had no doubt he was about to get a real treat.

"Sure." She held out her hand. The air around it glistened, and an ice sword appeared in her grip.

"Son of a— That is impressive, young lady."

Jayne disappeared the sword as quickly as she'd produced it. That was when Darryl and I both realized it was snowing in the room.

Mouth open, he stared up. "Is that real snow?"

"Real magical snow," Jayne answered.

He held his hand out, catching a few flakes. "Good heavens. We don't see a whole lot of that here, as I'm sure you can imagine. That is something else."

The last few flakes drifted down. "I thought you might get a kick out of that," Jayne said.

"You two are quite an impressive pair."

If only he knew about our talking cats , I thought.

He shifted in his chair, his expression becoming serious as the humor left his face. "Birdie mentioned you know what the password is for Charlotte Frett's computer."

Jayne nodded. "I believe I do. I also don't think she killed herself."

Darryl frowned. "I don't either, frankly. There was no note, for one thing, and while I realize you can never tell what's really going on with a person, she displayed none of the typical outward signs."

"I know there's still one set of unmatched prints from inside Charlie's apartment." Jayne reached into her purse and pulled out the plastic bag with the cup in it. "I have a strong suspicion that the prints on this cup will match that last set. They belong to a man named Tony. He was Charlie's boyfriend."

Darryl's brow furrowed as he took the bag. "How do you know all this? How did you get the cup? And how did you figure out Tony was her boyfriend?"

I had to interject. "We're pretty good at amateur sleuthing. It's something of a hobby, I guess you could say. But the only reason we're involved at all is because my longtime friend, Matthew Galloway, was a friend and client of Charlie's. She took care of his cat when he traveled. It's because of him that we got to meet her and how we got involved."

"I see," Darryl said. "Still doesn't answer my questions."

"Well…" Jayne started slowly, a sure sign she was choosing her words carefully. "We know what we know because we've had some inside information. Nothing you need to worry about, though. I promise we've done nothing to compromise the investigation. I got the cup at the reception that followed Charlie's funeral this morning."

I stepped in. "We knew Charlie had a boyfriend because she'd talked to Matt about him. A little more searching on Facebook and talking to one of her friends, Molly, and we put two and two together. Jayne spotted him at the reception and talked to him."

"We'd like to talk to him, too," Darryl said. "Especially if these prints match."

"So you'll run them?" Jayne asked.

"Immediately. The sooner I can close this case, the better. Do you know his last name?"

"No, sorry."

"It's all right," Darryl said. "I can reach out to the funeral home and get their guest book. We'll figure it out." He tapped a button on his desk phone and leaned in. "Greely, step into my office."

"On my way," came the answer.

A uniformed officer came in shortly after. He ignored us to focus on Tyson. "Sir?"

Darryl held out the cup still in the bag. "Get this listed into evidence on the Frett case and have it run for prints immediately. Stay on it. I want the results as soon as they're in, understand? Also, call the funeral home where the Frett memorial was today and get their guest book for today. If they have security cameras, which I'm sure they do, I want copies of the footage from today's service."

"Yes, sir." Greely took the bag and left.

"How soon before you get the prints?" I asked.

"As soon as the lab can get on them. It'll help that I asked for them personally." He laced his fingers together. "Anything else you think I should know?"

I looked at Jayne while thinking about Matt being blackmailed, but we'd promised not to mention it. Matt was so sure it would ruin him and create problems for his sister and niece, but if we didn't figure something out in the next few hours, it was also going to cost him a hundred grand with no reassurance it wouldn't happen again.

Jayne shook her head, digging into her purse. Assuming she was looking for sugar, I dug out a Jolly Rancher from my pocket and handed it to her. With a smile, she unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth, tucking it into her cheek before speaking. "Is there anything you think we should know?"

Darryl sighed. "We don't condone public interference. Not saying that's what you've done, just asking you to be careful going forward. There's only so much leeway before help becomes hindrance, you catch my drift?"

"We do," I told him.

"All right." He tapped his hand on the desk. "Let's go see if you can help us get into Charlie's computer."

He walked us to the IT lab and introduced us to a young woman named Kim. She had a white coat on over her street clothes. Server towers dominated one wall of the windowless room, computers of all kinds were laid out on worktables, and the subtle smell of ozone filled the air. "Welcome to the Forensic IT Department. I understand you might have the password for Charlotte Frett's computer?"

Jayne nodded. "I believe I do."

"Excellent." Kim handed Jayne a pair of stretchy purple gloves. "Put those on, and I'll let you see what you can do. Our algorithms are still running, but any help you can provide would be great."

Jayne snapped the gloves on, then went with Kim to a long white table in one corner. A laptop was set up there, connected to a power source, but also to a small black box with more cables running out of it. I could only assume those went to the larger machines standing against the walls.

Kim already had gloves on. She tapped the touchscreen and woke the computer up, then stepped back. "All yours."

The screen showed a small blank window, awaiting the password that would unlock the machine.

Jayne approached, stretching out her fingers. So softly that I might have been the only one to hear her, she whispered, "Please work."

She leaned over the computer and typed something on the keyboard, filling the little window with asterisks. The screen vanished, and a Word document appeared. It had to be the last thing Charlie had been working on. I peered closer. Looked like notes about one of the pets she took care of.

Kim quickly moved in front of the laptop, blocking the screen. "You did it." She blinked in surprise.

All smiles, Jayne looked at us. "Told you I knew it."

"I'll be a monkey's uncle." Darryl shook his head in obvious amazement. "How'd you figure it out?"

Jayne shrugged like it was no big deal, but it was a very big deal. "I just studied her and made an educated guess."

Not to mention, Jayne had also looked through Charlie's apartment, which had probably helped. Although I'd seen the videos and photos Jayne had taken and I still had no idea what Charlie's password was.

"Well done." Darryl didn't look like he believed what had just happened. "Tell Kim so she can write it down."

"I will," Jayne said.

He waved a finger at the laptop Kim was shielding from us. "Kim, get this thing analyzed. I want to know who she's been emailing, any private messages she might have sent or received on social media, the whole thing."

"Yes, sir," Kim said.

I kissed Jayne's cheek. "Very impressive. So come on, what was it? You've got to tell Kim anyway."

"Three words, no spaces." Jayne pursed her lips, her smile suddenly enigmatic. "The Cheshire Cat."

I wiggled my brows. "Curiouser and curiouser."