She stepped forward, ignoring Abernathy. “With or without your help, we are going after the cockatrice.” She glanced at Abernathy. “Anyone who gets in our way will be dealt with. Don’t piss me off. I’m hormonal and emotional and looking for an excuse to blow someone up.”
After twenty minutes, it was obvious none of them had much in the way of helpful information. Well, Lina suspected Abernathy knew more than he said, but he wasn’t giving it up if he did. Jocko and Andel were able to pull together some information from the other shifters that might prove helpful on finding the local cockatrice nest.
Just as she was about to go after Abernathy to find out what he was hiding, Callie and the others showed up.
With some relief, Zack pulled Lina aside with a suggestion. “Why don’t I take you back to the hotel now that they’re back?” he said.
Callie spoke up. “I’ll do it.”
“Cool. Okay, thanks.”
Out in the car, Lina looked at Callie. “We’re not really going to the hotel, are we?”
She laughed. “Hell, no.”
Callie found a place to park in an old part of town. They walked for a few minutes as Callie got her bearings.
“This looks familiar,” Callie said.
Lina followed Callie down a dingy, narrow cobblestone street. “You sure this is the right way?” Lina nervously asked.
“I think so.” She slowed at a corner and studied the buildings. “It’s been a long time, but these buildings are really old. It looks right.”
“You realize Rick and Jan are going to want to spank me for coming out here without them, right?”
Callie turned and grinned. “You lucky girl.”
Exasperated, Lina groaned. “Some of us don’t like to be spanked!”
“Hmph. Well, that’s all right. You have other nice qualities.” She took off down another street.
Lina rolled her eyes and followed Callie. After three more turns and ten minutes of walking, Lina grabbed Callie’s arm. “Explain to me again why we aren’t driving?”
“Narrow streets. Crappy traffic. And last time I was here, there weren’t any cars and we traveled on foot or horseback. Wait! That’s it!” She pointed to a wood and whitewashed plaster building kitty-corner across the street from where they stood. Callie took off with Lina in tow.
Outside the dingy front window, Callie looked at a dusty display of stone and wood statues in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and subjects stacked on several risers covered with a velveteen black cloth covered in what looked like cat hair. Lina looked up at the sign. It was in French, but she didn’t understand it.
“What’s that mean?”
Callie looked up. “Loosely translated, it’s ‘Carving Artisan.’ Come on.”
An anemic-sounding bell tinkled when they stepped into the cramped showroom, but no one appeared at the small counter in the back.
“Bonjour?” Callie called out. Lina didn’t miss how when Callie stepped forward, she seemed to instinctively keep Lina directly behind her in a protective manner.
No one answered her call.
Slowly weaving through dusty displays to make their way to the back of the shop, Lina felt her phone buzzing in her pocket. She grabbed it and answered. It was Zack.
“Where the hell are you two?”
Lina gave him the address. “Callie says this is the place.”
“I’ll be right there, give me five minutes. Do not move.”
“Where’s Rick and Jan?”
“They and the rest of them went with Kael to check out a lead on the nest.” He hung up on her.
Callie glanced back at her. “Mother hen?”
“Yep.” They stood at the counter.
Callie tapped a small bell set on the corner of the counter for getting the clerk’s attention. “Bonjour?” No response.
Callie arched an eyebrow as she stared at the closed curtain covering the doorway behind the counter.
“Stay here,” she said. Before Lina could stop her, Callie had quickly stepped around the counter and through the curtain.
Lina wanted to call out a warning to her to be careful, but then she heard her friend’s gasp. “Lina, come here.”
With dread, Lina made her way to the back of the shop. The small, cramped work space held three benches covered with various tools Lina assumed were used for carving. A small grinding machine was set up on a stand in one corner. There were also several saws and tumblers she guessed were also used by the artisan.
She also assumed the dead older man lying curled on his side on the floor in a pool of his own blood was the artisan in question. “Shit.” From his color, and the fact that the blood had started congealing and drying at the edges of the puddle, she guessed he’d been dead a while.
Callie knelt down to try to get a better look at his face. All Lina could tell was he looked to be in his seventies and had grey hair and a walrus mustache. “Do you know him?” Lina asked.
Callie shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. This isn’t the guy I knew. Might be his son or other relative.” She looked up and pointed at one of the shelves. “Look at that.”
Lina stepped around the dead man. She wondered that she wasn’t getting upset over stumbling on a dead body, but then she suspected she knew exactly who had killed this man. And why. On a top shelf, partially hidden by some small boxes, sat raw chunks of catlinite.
Callie stood and looked around. “Well, we’re not getting any answers out of him. Let’s see what we can find.” She opened a file cabinet and started rifling through it.
Lina looked around, not sure what she was looking for. When the front doorbell rang a few minutes later, she jumped. They both looked at each other. Callie had started for the curtained doorway when they heard Zack call out.
“Lina? Where are you?”
“Back here,” she called.
Seconds later, he ran through the doorway and barely had enough time to skid to a stop so he didn’t step on the dead man. “Holy shit!” He glared at Callie. “What the hell did you do that for?”
She gave him a disgusted look and planted her hands on her hips. “Why the hell do you just naturally assume I did anything? We found him like that. He’s been dead for hours. Duh.”
“Oh.” Zack did, in fact, look more closely. “Sorry.”
“Believe me, when I kill someone, it’s a lot more creative than stabbing them in the heart. Besides, that’s a typical cockatrice trick. Signature move.”
Zack and Lina exchanged a look, and at the same time said, “Son of a bitch!”
“What?”
Zack said, “I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that whoever killed Bertholde killed this guy, too. That’s how they murdered her. They stabbed her in the heart.”
“They didn’t leave a knife this time,” Lina pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter,” Callie said. “Stabbing someone in the heart is something peculiar they do. I never learned what the significance is, but it’s just their thing. Like the mob leaving a horse’s head in your bed.”
“Great,” Zack said. “We should get out of here.”
“We haven’t finished tossing the place yet,” Callie pointed out.
“I don’t care. We can come back later and do it. I want Lina out of here.”
“Lina’s a big girl,” Callie said. “We’ll keep her safe.”
“Hello,” Lina said. “Lina is right here.” She waved her hand in Zack’s face. “Goddess wants to stay and play Sherlock Holmes,” she snarked. “I’m tired of feeling helpless.”
“Fine. Let’s do it fast and get the hell out of here. What are we looking for?”
Lina grabbed an empty plastic shopping bag and retrieved the uncarved catlinite. No surprise, she felt nothing when she picked up the stone.