Chapter 23

I continued the interview. ‘Did you know that Aoife had stolen the fire gem?’ I asked abruptly, hoping to shock something out of her.

Nora pursed her lips. ‘Not until you told me,’ she said flatly.

‘Do you know why she did that?’

She smirked proudly. ‘To bring that damned barrier down, of course. For years she’s heard me talk about that ridiculous tax bleeding our finances dry – and for what? To protect us from the bogeyman? It’s absurd. We’re supernats, for god’s sake. We fear nothing and no one.’

She could speak for herself; I feared plenty of things including spiders, commitment, and the monster beyond the barrier. ‘Have you actively done anything to bring the barrier down?’ I asked.

She looked down and away from me. My gut told me the real answer was yes even as she was saying no.

‘You’ve protested,’ I pointed out.

‘And that’s all,’ she lied.

‘How far can you teleport?’ I demanded.

‘That’s none of your business,’ she retorted.

‘It is my business. I’ll remind you that this interview is voluntary at the moment, but if you leave some questions unanswered I might have to take it to the next level.’ I looked her in the eye. She might think I was bluffing but I really did suspect she had something to do with the theft of the wind gem. She wanted the barrier down.

Now that I knew how banshees worked, I was also suspicious that she might have had something to do with her daughter’s death. She could have killed Aoife so that the girl could ascend to the position of family banshee. She hadn’t lost her daughter with her death, not truly.

‘I can teleport a hundred feet,’ she snapped.

‘Could Aoife do the same?’

‘She’s stronger.’ Nora’s voice was full of pride. ‘She can teleport almost a mile.’

I realised she was responding in present tense, as though her daughter were still alive. Maybe I was wrong about her and she was grieving, or at least deep in denial. She started to chew on a fingernail and I noticed they were all ragged and short; she was an anxiety chewer like me.

‘Have you ever considered having your nails done?’ I asked lightly, wondering if it could have been her fake nail I’d found beneath her daughter. ‘I used to chew mine until I started getting the fake ones. It stopped when I couldn’t chew through them.’

She dropped her hands. ‘It doesn’t stop me.’ My ears pricked up and excitement coursed through me. ‘So I quit getting them done.’

Dammit.‘Is there anyone you can think of that would want Aoife dead?’

Nora’s face tightened into a scowl. ‘No. Everyone loved her.’

The only time I’d met Aoife before all this started, she’d been friendly enough. She’d reported a drug bust and been excited and giggly, although now that I thought back she could have been drunk or high. ‘Did Aoife take drugs?’ I asked.

‘What? No, she did not!’ Nora stood up, outraged. ‘What are you insinuating? Are you trying to blame her for her own death?’

‘Of course not. Sit down, please. No, I’m not trying to blame her for her own murder; I’m trying to narrow down a suspect. Drug dealers aren’t known for their kind natures.’

She glared at me icily but reluctantly sat back down. ‘Drugs?’ I prompted.

‘I don’t know,’ she admitted grudgingly. ‘She’s underage for alcohol and marijuana, so if she did either she kept it from me. She knows I wouldn’t tolerate that kind of thing.’

I had no idea if fisheye could harm a banshee, though it had killed a vampire, almost killed a demigod and generally wrought havoc around town. I guessed it was too late to worry about Aoife taking it.

‘What about Luke?’ I probed.

‘What about him?’

‘Do you think he could have killed Aoife?’

‘No. He’s a good kid. He’s been through a lot, and he adores Aoife.’

‘Do you know where we found Aoife’s body?’

Nora paled but nodded.

‘Do you know why she was there?’ She’d been behind some houses at the edge of the woods and that had been bothering me. The family who owned the property didn’t know her and were deeply disturbed about what had happened. There was no logical reason for her to have been there.

Nora shook her head. ‘I don’t know for sure but I have my suspicions. I wondered if it was a stopping point for her when she teleported from home to wherever. It’s at the edge of her teleport range from our house.’

That made sense: Aoife probably stopped in the same places when she teleported. With a range of about a mile, she could get to town from her house with two stops. Since no one had reported her zipping around, she must have kept her abilities on the down-low and paused in discreet places like the woods.

‘Is there a limit to how many times you can teleport in a fixed period of time?’ I asked.

‘It depends on your energy reserves. Aoife was stronger than me in that regard too,’ she said proudly.

Since she seemed off-guard, I asked, ‘Did you harm your daughter?’

‘No! Never!’ she snarled at me.

‘Did you steal the wind gem or take the fire gem from your daughter?’

‘Absolutely not.’ She stood up and put her hands on her hips. Her shirt sleeve rode up, exposing her wrist where a fleck of red paint was visible – red paint the exact shade of the threats on my wall. I let my eyes linger there deliberately and she hastily pulled down her sleeve.

‘Done any spray painting recently?’ I asked mildly.

‘You can’t prove anything,’ she hissed. And then she teleported away.