Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

The drive to Letty’s house took about twenty minutes. Traffic had calmed down, though they were busy with pedestrians, hustling through the city streets like ants at a picnic. There was a bleak, busy feel to Seattle during the holiday season. Most of the holiday displays hadn’t gone up yet, and the clouds echoed the grays of the pavement and concrete buildings. The mirrored windows reflected the windswept skies. November brought with it strong winds and rains to the area, and though Pike Place Market and the docks were busy as ever, a melancholy pall hung over the area.

Letty lived near Volunteer Park and Lake View Cemetery, where Bruce and Brandon Lee’s graves were. Not quite four miles away from our office, the trip took us twenty minutes due to the detours and roadwork going on. She lived on Federal Ave East, with East Galer Street as a cross street. As we pulled into the driveway of the modest one-story house, I noticed the yard was exquisitely manicured. But it didn’t look like a lot of the cookie-cutter lawns, and there were several plants I didn’t recognize.

There was already a car in the driveway, one that I figured belonged to Angela. I glanced at my watch. It was 10:05, so we were almost on time.

“Well, let’s go.” I opened my door and hopped out, grabbing a kit from the back seat. Dante followed me up to the door. There were a couple charms near the door, and a pentacle to one side of the opening. The protection magic coming off it was so strong that even I could feel it.

“She was a powerful witch,” Dante said.

“I think you’d have to be a powerful witch to be principal of a magical academy, don’t you?” I said, reaching out to ring the bell.

Within seconds, the door opened. Angela smiled when she saw us.

“Thank you for being so prompt,” she said, opening the screen door. “Please watch so Letty’s cat doesn’t get out. He’s an indoor only and I don’t want to let her down by losing him.”

As we entered the house, I felt a slight rush of air pass by. I couldn’t talk to spirits all that easily, but lately, I had noticed that I picked up on them easier than most people. If they wanted to communicate, I was pretty sure I could open myself to them. As I entered the house, I knew that somebody was hanging around, though whether it was Letty, I wasn’t sure.

The house itself was so clean that I wondered if Angela had hired a cleaning crew. Everything seemed to have a place, everything seemed to be in alignment with everything else. Nothing seemed out of place.

“Letty was…immaculate,” Angela said. “We could never live together because, while I’m not messy, she needed everything to be perfect. It drove me nuts,” she said softly, glancing around with a sigh. “We didn’t always get along and now I regret that. Don’t let things fester between you and your loved ones. You never know when you’re going to miss those annoying habits.”

I nodded, not knowing what to say. I wasn’t the most empathetic person, even though I did care. But Dante moved over to her and motioned to the sofa.

“Shall we sit down?” he asked, his voice gentle. Even though he was flamboyant as hell, he also had a charm that came across as caring.

She gave him smile. “Thank you. I think I’m a little overwhelmed.”

I looked around. “So, do you mind if we search through the house to see what we can find? Do you know if she had a diary, perhaps? And we’ll want to sort through her computer, so do you mind if we take it with us?”

Angela shrugged. “As to a diary, I’m not sure. Her computer is in her office, which is behind that door over there. Her bedroom is at the end of the hall. Take whatever you need, though if you come across a necklace of pearls and aquamarine, I’d appreciate it if you gave it to me. That was our mother’s and she got it when we lost her.”

“Of course,” I said. “We’ll inventory everything we take for evidence and return it to you as soon as we can. My company is licensed and bonded, so you can be sure that we’ll treat everything with care, and we’ll store them in a vault to protect them until we return them.”

“I’m not worried about that,” she said. “I looked up your reputation and it’s stellar. You have one of the best ratings on ReviewsIt. Now, go ahead and start looking. I’m going to go through the kitchen, box up the food that I want to keep, and clear out the refrigerator and cupboards. What I don’t keep, I’m planning on giving to the food bank.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” I said. “Let’s start in the office.” I picked up the investigation kit that we’d put together and we headed for the office that Angela pointed out.

Letty’s office was as neat as the rest of her house. Not only did she have a desktop, but she also had a laptop. Dante ducked out to ask Angela if she knew the passwords to either, but came up empty.

“Then we’ll take both back to the office and have Carson start hacking into them,” I said. “Go ahead and secure them in the back of the Jeep.”

As Dante carried them out to the car, I sat down at the desk and began going through the drawers. Letty had a desk file holder that also held current mail. I glanced through the bills, marking down account numbers, then took what I assumed were the unpaid accounts out to Angela so she would be able to contact the utility and credit card companies. But first, I took pictures of all the credit card bills to go through later on.

Dante returned and he began looking through the bookshelves for anything that might stand out to us, while I started going through the desk drawers. Aside from some very neatly organized office supplies, I found a box at the back of the bottom right drawer. It was about eight inches wide by twelve inches long by six inches high. I pulled it out to examine it.

The box was pretty—it had a vintage look to it, with an old-world style maps design on the outside. As I opened it, the smell of cedar wafted out. The box was full of letters, three stacks with ribbons around each. I lifted them out and set them on the desk. As I untied the ribbons, I noticed the return address on them all seemed the same, though partway through, it changed to a different one though the handwriting appeared to be the same.

“Hmm,” I said, opening one at random. Much to my surprise, it was a love letter—or so it appeared—dated about a year before.

Dear Letty,

I can’t tell you how much I wish we could be together. At our age, you’d think we’d be free to express our love as we want, but I know you want to protect Angela. But don’t you think, after all this time, she’ll be okay with our relationship? I can’t imagine that she’d begrudge our love. It’s been thirty-two years since I broke off the engagement. Her heart has to have mended since then. And you know that my wife won’t care, as long as I give her a good settlement.

But, if you decide that we must keep our love secret, I’ll keep it quiet and we can meet in secret twice a year, the way we have since the day I had to leave town. I’ll never stop loving you. I’ll never stop waiting for you. As long as I know you still love me, my heart is yours. –Dave

Oh man , I thought, sitting back. I hadn’t expected to stumble over something like this and now I didn’t know what to do. Angela would find these on her own if I left them, but I wanted to go through them, to find out if there was anything that she might have written to him about that said she was in trouble. And then again—what if Angela had already found out?

Could she have engineered Letty’s death, especially if she had discovered her sister’s betrayal recently? But then, would she have left the letters for us to find? That didn’t seem likely.

With those and other questions running through my head, I tucked the letter back in the envelope and placed them back in the box, setting it into one of the bags I’d brought to collect evidence. I decided I’d hold off on asking Angela about who Dave was until we’d sorted through everything back at the office.

Dante turned around, holding a book. “She has a lot of books on the Demonkin.”

“It was one of her specialties, remember? She taught a class in it some years back.”

“Well, there’s a paper in one of them—and it has a website on it. I’ve never heard of this.” He frowned, shaking his head. “It looks shady.”

I stood and stretched, then walked over to glance at the book and the paper. “Let’s see…” I skimmed the table of contents. There were chapters on how to capture and eliminate demons of various types, which made me uncomfortable given I was half demon, chapters on how to recognize possession and how to perform exorcisms.

“Do you think Letty was a demon hunter?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but given my heritage, I’m not all that comfortable with this,” I said.

“There’s a bestiary of all sorts of demonkin,” he said, pointing to another book.

I thumbed through the chapter, which consisted of drawings of different kinds of demons. “I wonder…”

“What?” Dante asked.

“I wonder what kind of demon I am. My mother refused to tell me who my father was, other than he was demonkin, and she wouldn’t tell me his name. I look at all these drawings, but nothing jumps out to me.”

Once again, I felt at a loss. I knew I had special powers, given I was half demon, but I didn’t know what they were, or if they’d ever show themselves, given I was half-human. I was stronger than most humans—in fact, I was as strong as a vampire in many ways. I had a trigger-hair temper…but it always felt like there was more for me to find out…I just didn’t know how.

“You’ll eventually figure it out,” Dante said. “And I’ll be there to help you deal with whatever it is that crops up.”

I gave him back the book. “You’ve already helped me more than I ever could expect,” I said. “You helped me at a point when I thought I couldn’t get any lower.”

He pulled me to him and gave me a hug. “And I’ll always be here,” he whispered. “Yes, you made some serious errors in judgement, but I knew that you were better than that. I won’t ever let you go back. You have my promise.”

I let out a shaky breath, pushing away the memories before they could flood to the surface. We had a job to do, and I needed to focus on why we were here. “All right, take all those books. We may want to copy them, or—if Angela doesn’t mind—keep them for our research.”

We finished with the office and moved onto the bedroom. I glanced through her dresser drawers, finding nothing other than clothes. Dante looked through the closet, finding a trunk with old photos, but there seemed nothing out of the ordinary in there. I glanced through her nightstand, and again, nothing.

We sorted through the house, but something struck me as odd. “Letty was a powerful witch, but I haven’t seen anything to indicate she practiced magic here. Where are all her tools? Her crystals, wands, oils? I doubt if she stored them all at the school.”

“Let’s ask Angela,” Dante said.

Angela had ordered takeout, which was on the kitchen table. “Please, have some if you like. I was hungry, so figured I’d order lunch early.”

It smelled good, but today was fish-and-chips day back at the office. “Thank you, but we’re eating back at the office,” I said. “Say, where’s all your sister’s magical gear? We haven’t come across anything yet.”

“She kept it in the basement. I don’t think you’ve been down there yet,” Angela said.

“Okay. Which way?” Dante said.

“Where’s the door?” I asked.

“Over there,” Angela said, pointing to a door in the corner of the kitchen. There was a cat-door in it. “That leads to the basement, and the other leads to the back porch, where Letty kept her herb garden.”

I headed for the basement, Dante following me. As we headed downstairs, Angela flipped the light on from behind the door. She followed us down.

“Letty might have some wards that could be dangerous to strangers, so I’ll come down and make sure that everything’s good to go,” she said.

The stairs to the basement were steep, but they were in good shape, and the light was bright enough to see all the way to the bottom. This was no cellar, with cobwebs and skeletons hiding behind the corner, but it was—as Angela had said—fully finished, bright, and oddly cheerful.

The only thing that made it clear we were in the basement was the relatively low ceiling, and the furnace room. There were three other rooms—one was a small laundry room, the second appeared to be a storage room, and the main room was large, lined with bookshelves and cabinets. A large table in the center was covered with magical supplies, and there was a love seat next to one of the bookshelves. A fireplace stood against one wall, mirroring the one above it in the living room, and it looked well used.

A cat, gray, large and fluffy, was resting on the love seat. I had a connection with cats and the moment I caught sight of him, I knew it was a boy. He looked a little lost, and I realized he was missing his person.

“Oh, what’s his name?” I asked.

“Murdoch. He was Letty’s familiar. I’m not sure what to do with him, given I’m allergic to cats. I won’t die around him, but he makes me…” She paused, sneezing at the perfect moment.

Murdoch looked as though she had called him a dirty name, then slowly stood, stretched, and wandered over to greet Dante and me. He rubbed against Dante’s legs and then jumped into my arms, curling up against my chest and starting to purr.

“Oh, hey there,” I said, almost staggering as his full weight landed against me. He had to weigh close to twenty pounds. Jangles was fluffy, but she was thirteen pounds, which was solid enough as it was. “Well, hello,” I said as Murdoch licked my chin.

“He likes you,” Angela said, her eyes glittering. “Say…”

“Oh no,” I said. “I have a cat and she’s…” But I hesitated as Murdoch gave me a look that said rescue me . There was something about him… “All right, I’ll give it a try. If Jangles is okay with him, I’ll take him. If not, you’ll have to find him another home.”

“I’ll get his carrier and things while you look around down here,” she said, obviously relieved. As she headed up the stairs, I set Murdoch down and we began looking through the cabinets and shelves. They were filled with spell components, from herbs to sachets to rusty nails to graveyard dust and other, more exotic items.

“She certainly was well-stocked. This looks like Penn’s store. I wonder what Angela’s going to do with all of this?—”

“I have everything I need for my own magic,” Angela said, returning with Murdoch’s carrier. He stared at it for a moment, then walked over and curled up inside it. “Well, that wasn’t any trouble.”

“If he’s that easy-going, this might work out,” I said. “So, if you’re planning on selling any of this, I might know someone who could use some of it. My best friend runs a magic shop.”

“She’s welcome to it, after I sort out what I want to keep,” Angela said, shutting the door on the carrier. “I’ll let you know when I’ve gone through everything.”

Dante and I looked through everything, but neither one of us worked magic and everything read like a foreign language.

I turned back to Angela while Dante examined the bookcase. “Do you see anything that strikes you as odd? You’re a witch, so you might recognize something that we don’t.”

Angela walked over to the table and sorted through the contents. “I think…it looks like she was making several powerful protection charms. The house is already protected, and I can tell you that there aren’t really any gaps in her wards. We were supposed to meet for dinner. As I told you, she said she had something she needed to talk to me about, but she didn’t want to discuss it over the phone.”

Dante motioned to me. I joined him at one of the bookcases. He held out a couple of grimoires that, again, dealt with demonology. I motioned for him to add them to the growing sack of items we were taking.

“Do you notice anything else?” I asked her.

Angela shook her head. “No, except I can’t seem to find her mandrake root. We each have a mandrake root that was passed down from our great-grandmother, and we guard those with our lives. They carry some of our family power. Letty wouldn’t take it out of her magical lab without a damned good reason.”

“What does it look like?” I asked.

She described the man-like root and we started sorting through all the cupboards and drawers, but half-an hour later, we came up empty-handed, and Angela was getting more and more concerned.

“Letty guarded that root with her life. I guard mine. They’re bound to us, even deeper than a familiar. The mandrake roots have a life force of their own.” She paused, then said, “I would never tell most people this, because non-witches don’t realize it and there’s a reason we keep the information silent. But…when you have a Fam-Trad mandrake root, passed down by an ancestor, it contains a part of your family essence. And an enemy who gets hold of it can potentially use it as a weapon to target the owner.”

“Would Letty have taken it to school? Maybe she’s hidden it somewhere in the house?” Dante asked, looking around. “We searched all the cupboards upstairs.”

“Well, there are a few more down here that we haven’t tried,” Angela said. She began opening the drawers of the last cabinet, searching through them. She suddenly froze, then reached in to pull out a black velvet box about the size of her hand. A design was embossed on the top, a triskele. She set it on the table, then gingerly opened it. The box was empty.

“The root’s gone,” she said. “This was her mandrake’s home. It lived in this box. I don’t know its name, of course, but I know this is where she kept it.”

“Name?” I asked. “The mandrake has a name? Is it sentient?”

“Yes, mandrakes are sentient, and they have magic all their own. They’re not to be trifled with. Every full mandrake root has a name, but they only tell them to their witches. If a mandrake root is cut to make oil with, or if it’s shredded to use in various spells, the root effectively dies, although its magical energy is still there. Tradition is to give an offering to the earth in return for killing the mandrake.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said. Penn had never mentioned it. Now, I wondered if she had one and decided to ask her the next time we talked. While I didn’t have the abilities to work magic like a witch, magic fascinated me. Perhaps because I had some latent powers of my own that felt magical in their own way.

“Yes, the mandrake is part of a witch’s tradition, regardless of their specialty. But you can’t just buy a full mandrake root up front. It must be willed to you, or gifted, or you have to stumble over it somewhere. I know a couple witches who found theirs in a thrift shop, hidden back on a dusty shelf.”

“I assume you have one?” Dante asked.

Angela nodded. “Yes. As I said, our great-grandmother gave them to us, when we were born. Our mother kept them for us until we were old enough to use them responsibly. The mandrake is a powerful tool—and once you attune to it, nobody else can use it. But others can use them to hurt their owners. I have an identical box with mine in it, and I keep it tucked away, out of sight. I can tell you right now, Letty’s root is no longer in this house. Either she took it somewhere, or it was stolen. Or both.”

“We need to search her office at the school before anybody else gets there, then,” I said. “I’ll call the academy this afternoon and see if we can make an appointment for this afternoon or tomorrow. If we find the mandrake root, what should we do with it? Can we safely touch it?”

Angela handed me the box and a long black ribbon. “If you find it, use a cloth, or wear a glove to pick it up and set it back in the box. Close it, tie it firmly shut with this ribbon, and then return it to me, if you will.”

“Right,” I said. Inside, I had the feeling that the mandrake root had played a party in Letty’s death. I just didn’t know how . We finished with the basement and then, I picked up Murdoch’s carrier and Dante picked up the sacks of items we were taking back to the office. We headed for the stairs.

“I guess we’ll be off. We’ll try to get these things back to you as soon as we can, and I’ll email you an inventory of what we’ve taken.” I paused, then once again, a cold shiver raced down my spine as I felt the shadow brush past me. I turned to Angela.

“Do you feel that?” I asked. “There’s some spirit in this house, but they haven’t tried to contact me, so I can’t quite pinpoint who or what it is. I can talk to some ghosts, but it’s not my specialty.”

“I know. I first noticed it two weeks ago, the last time I came to dinner. Letty brushed it off when I mentioned it, and she didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so I let it go. But I’ve felt it hanging around ever since I opened the door this morning. Whoever it is, seems to want me to pay attention because this is the fourth time that its shown itself.” Angela nodded. “I know it’s not Letty. I don’t know who it is, but I’m not the best person to find out. I’d hire a medium, but I’m not sure who I can trust.”

It occurred to me that Sophia might be able to help. “Our receptionist is an Oracle. She might be able to make contact, if we can bring her over here. It might be worth the time.”

“I’m willing if she is. I’ve taken a month off to deal with this, so it’s not like my calendar’s full.” Angela escorted us upstairs. “Give me a call to set up something.”

As we exited the house, Murdoch let out a loud mew, almost as though he was saying goodbye. I glanced at the massive gray cat. “I’m sorry, dude. Your person is gone, and you’re not sure what’s going on. But I promise you, if you and Jangles get along, I’ll take good care of you.”

As I slid the carrier into the back seat and locked the seatbelt through the handle, I could have sworn I heard a distinct ‘thank you.’ As I looked in to make sure he was okay, he stared directly at me. He let out a ‘purp’ and curled up, and right then, it felt like he was letting go of something. A gentle mist floated out of the carrier, then dissipated in the wind that swept by. Murdoch began to purr, and I had the weirdest feeling he had just said goodbye to Letty for the last time.