"So if no spell, why all the symbols?" he asked.
"I haven't the faintest idea. From the looks of things he was shot behind the ear and nailed to the wall. The body isn't arranged to imitate any mystical or religious symbolism that I'm familiar with. Then they threw some pentagrams around and copied runes out of a book."
"Which book?"
"There are a lot of books on the runes, everything from college textbooks to the occult to New Age. You'd probably have to go to a college store or one of the New Age shops, or you could probably special order it through any bookstore."
"So this isn't a ritual murder," he said.
"There may be ritual to it from the killer's point of view, but was it done with magical purpose? No."
He let out a deep breath. "Good, that's what Reynolds told Dolph."
"Detective Tammy Reynolds, your one and only witch on staff?" I asked.
He nodded.
"Why didn't Dolph believe her?"
"He said he wanted confirmation."
I shook my head, and it didn't make me dizzy to do it. Great. "He doesn't trust her, does he?"
Zerbrowski shrugged. "Dolph's just careful."
"Bull-fucking-shit, Zerbrowski, he doesn't trust her because she's a witch. She's a Christian witch for heaven's sake, a Follower of the Way. You can't get more mainstream in your occult expert than a Christian witch."
"Hey, don't get mad at me, I didn't drag you out of bed to double-check Reynolds's work."
"And would he have dragged her down here to check my work, if I'd been first on the scene?"
"You'd have to ask Dolph about that."
"Maybe I will," I said.
Zerbrowski went a little pale. "Anita, please don't go after Dolph angry. He is in a bad, bad mood."
"Why?"
He shrugged again. "Dolph doesn't confide in me."
"Is he just in a bad mood today, or for the last few days, what?"
"The last few days have been worse, but two murders in one night have sort of given him a reason to be grumpy, and he's taking full advantage of it."
"Great, just great," I said. My anger helped me stomp off towards the bank of windows that took up most of the other wall. I stood there and stared off at the amazing view. Nothing but hills, trees, it did look as if the house sat in the middle of some vast wilderness.
Zerbrowski came to stand beside me. "Nice view, huh?"
"Whoever did this had to have scouted the house." I motioned at the windows. "They had to know for sure that there was no neighbor out there that could see what they were doing. Shooting him, you might take your chances, but putting him up on the wall, and all the symbols, no, they had to be sure they wouldn't be seen."
"That's pretty organized for a wacko," Zerbrowski said.
"Not if it's really someone wanting you to think they're a wacko."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't tell me that you and Dolph haven't thought of that."
"What?"
"That it's someone near and dear to the dead man, someone who stands to inherit all this." I looked around at the living room, which was as large as the entire downstairs of my house. "I was too sick to really notice when I came in, but if the rest of the house is as impressive as this, then there's money to be had."
"You haven't seen the pool yet, have ya?"
"Pool?"
"Indoors, with a Jacuzzi big enough for twelve."
I sighed. "Like I said, money. Follow the money, find out who stands to gain. The ritual is only window dressing, a smoke screen that the murderers hope will throw you off."
He stood staring off at the beautiful view, hands behind his back, sort of rocking on his heels. "You're right, that's exactly what Dolph thought once Reynolds said there was no magic to it."
"I'm not going over to the other scene just to check her work again, am I? Because if that's the case, I'm headed home. I may not always like Detective Tammy, but she's pretty good at what she does."
"You just don't like that she's dating Larry Kirkland, your animator in training."
"No, I don't like that she and Larry are dating. She's his first serious girlfriend, so forgive me, but I felt protective."
"Funny, I don't feel protective of Reynolds at all."
"That's because you're weird, Zerbrowski."
"No," he said, "it's because I see the way Reynolds and Kirkland look at each other. They are dead gone, Anita, in L-O-V-E."
I sighed. "Maybe."
"If you haven't noticed, it's because you didn't want to see it."
"Maybe I've been busy."
For once Zerbrowski stayed quiet.
I looked at him. "You never answered my first question, am I going to the next murder scene to check Tammy's work?"
He stopped rocking on his heels and stood quiet, face serious. "I don't know, probably some."
"I'm going home then."
He touched my arm. "Go to the second scene, Anita, please. Don't give Dolph any more reason to be more pissy."
"That is not my problem, Zerbrowski. Dolph is making his own life hard on this one."
"I know, but the couple officers that have been at both scenes say the second one is a bad one. More up your alley than Reynolds's."
"Up my alley, how?"
"Violent, real violent. Dolph doesn't want to know if it's magic, he wants to know if something that wasn't human did it."
"Dolph's a fanatic about not giving details away to his people before they've seen a crime scene, Zerbrowski. What you've just told me would piss him off mightily."
"I was afraid you wouldn't go, if I didn't... add a little."
"Why do you care if Dolph and I are feuding?"
"We're here to solve crimes, Anita, not fight each other. I don't know what's eating Dolph, but one of you has to be the grown-up." He smiled. "Yeah. I know things have come to a sorry state when you're the one, but there it is."
I shook my head and slapped his arm. "You are such a pain in the ass, Zerbrowski."
"It's good to be appreciated," he said.
The anger was fading, and with it the spurt of energy. I leaned my head against his shoulder. "Get me outside before I start feeling bad again. I'll go see the second crime scene."
He put his arm around my shoulders and gave me half a hug. "That's my little federal marshal."
I raised my head. "Don't push it, Zerbrowski."
"Can't help myself, sorry."
I sighed. "You're right, you can't help yourself. Forget I said anything, keep saying witty irritating things as you walk me back to Jason."
He started me across the room, arm still across my shoulders. "How did you end up with a werewolf stripper as your driver for the day?"
"Just lucky I guess."
19
The second scene was in Chesterfield, which had been a hot address for the up-and-comers before most of the money moved even farther out to Wildwood and beyond. The neighborhood that Jason drove us through was a sharp contrast to the big isolated houses we'd just seen. This was middle-class, middle America, backbone of the nation kind of neighborhood. There are thousands of subdivisions exactly like it. Except in this one, not all the houses were identical. They were still too close together and had a sameness about them, as if a hive mind had designed them all, but some were two-story, some only one, some brick, some not. Only the garage seemed to be the same on all of them, as if the architect wasn't willing to compromise on that one feature.