According to the numerous articles and scientific papers I’d read, the transformation permanently altered the subject’s magic. Instead of their original powers, all their magic was now dedicated to keeping their warped bodies functioning. The constant magic drain killed them within two to three years.
No one magic-warped could have a magical talent by definition. Yet Sigourney’s killer clearly did.
Not only that, but a warped human couldn’t have pulled off this hit. It required critical thinking and performing a succession of tasks: break in, move quietly, kill the target, turn off the computer, stage the scene, set the house on fire. Nevada knew a warped woman, Cherry. Before Cherry died a couple of years ago, she’d spent her days swimming in the brackish water in a flooded part of Houston, eating fish and garbage. She couldn’t carry on a conversation for longer than a minute. If you somehow convinced, bribed, or forced Cherry into assaulting a House, she would probably crash through a window or bang on the door until she forgot what she was doing there.
Maybe it wasn’t a clawed hand. Maybe it was some sort of specialized glove. I peered at the screen.
My cell rang.
Across from me, Runa groaned. “Please answer it. My head hurts.”
I took the call.
“Greetings, Ms. Baylor,” Mr. Fullerton’s precise voice said.
I put the call on speaker. “Hello, Mr. Fullerton. I hadn’t expected to hear from you so soon.” He had told me it would take at least twenty-four hours for the DNA results.
“The official results will be available tomorrow; however, under the circumstances, I felt urgency was in order. Is Ms. Etterson present?”
“Yes,” Runa said.
“Very well. I can confirm that one of the bodies is that of Sigourney Etterson.”
As expected.
“The other body doesn’t match any of the profiles in House Etterson. It shares no similar genetic markers.”
Runa jerked upright in her seat.
“Could you please repeat that?” I asked.
“The other body isn’t Halle Etterson.”
“Where is she then?” Runa demanded.
“I don’t know. I know where she isn’t. She isn’t in the Forensic Institute’s morgue. I hope this was helpful. Ms. Baylor, Ms. Etterson, good day.”
Holy shit.
The three of us, Bern, Runa, and I, stared at each other.
Leon strode into the kitchen. He wore his bloodstained T-shirt on his head, like a turban, and his bare chest peeked through the gap of his open jacket. He was carrying a bucket of fried chicken in one hand and a bank deposit slip in the other.
“I closed Yarrow,” he said. “The three of you look like you’ve just been slapped by a ghost.”
“Neither of the bodies from the Etterson fire belongs to Halle Etterson,” Bern said.
“Wow.” Leon put the deposit slip in front of me, dropped into a chair, pulled the cardboard lid from the bucket, and fished out a drumstick.
“So, does this mean Halle’s alive?” Runa asked.
I glanced at Bern, sitting at the table, but he apparently decided to impersonate a statue from Easter Island, because all I got back was an enigmatic look. I was on my own.
“No. It means that the other body in the morgue isn’t your sister.”
“So she could be alive?”
Runa jumped up and paced around the kitchen, circling the island. She was desperate and drowning in grief. The small chance that Halle might have survived was a lifeline and she clung to it. She was irrational before, and she would be completely unpredictable now. I had to make sure she stayed put. The last thing we needed was her running out to “investigate.”
“She could be alive. If they killed her, why go through the trouble of planting a body? However, we aren’t sure where she is or what condition she’s in. Somebody went to great lengths to make sure she was officially dead. They didn’t want anyone to look for her. We have to tread carefully here. We may endanger her by our actions.”
Runa stopped pacing and stared at me. “Catalina, if there is the slightest chance that my sister is alive, we have to find her. Nothing else matters; not revenge, not finding the murderer, nothing except Halle’s life.”
“I understand. Halle is the first priority.” I turned to Bern. “Were you able to find that two million Sigourney liquidated on the day of her death?”
Bern frowned.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
“I’ve checked all of our accounts,” Runa said. “It’s not there. It wasn’t wired in and then wired out or withdrawn. It didn’t come in as a big chunk or in smaller deposits.”
“Ramma munnuf,” Leon said.
“Swallow your food,” Bern told him.
Leon gulped his iced tea. “Ransom money.”
Thank you, Captain Obvious. Just because we hadn’t blurted it out in front of the client didn’t mean we all weren’t quietly thinking it.
Runa froze. “Do you think Halle was kidnapped and Mom withdrew the money to pay the ransom?”
“It’s a possibility,” I said, keeping my tone measured.
“Catalina, stop treating me like I’m made of glass! Everything is ‘may’ and ‘possibility’ and ‘we’re not sure’! I deserve an honest answer.”
You know what, fine.
“Okay. Here is the truth: I don’t know. I’m trying not to get your hopes up, because you’re grieving, and it makes you prone to rash decisions.” There, that was honest.
“Dun dun dun,” Leon intoned dramatically.
“Rash decisions? Like what?” Runa demanded.
“Like poisoning the man who could’ve told us who hired him to cover up this murder.”
Runa waved her arms. “My mother’s body attacked us, I freaked out! And besides, it was your boyfriend who stabbed him.”
“Please. Conway was a dead man walking before he left the room. You poisoned him so well that his body grew an inch of black fuzz after he was already dead. And for the last time, Alessandro isn’t my boyfriend.”
Runa’s eyes narrowed. “When I saw you, you had your hand on his arm, as if you were walking into prom. You had that look on your face.”
Leon and Bern looked like they were watching a great movie and had just come to the best part. Ugh.
“What look?” I asked.
“The I’m-touching-the-dreamiest-guy-in-the-universe look.”
“I was flustered. I’d just watched him stab a man and then smile at me like nothing happened.”
“Well, I was flustered too!”
Arabella walked into the kitchen. “I smell chicken. Give.”
“You’re gonna want to sit down for this,” Leon told her. “Catalina and Runa are having a fight. We’re about an inch from hair pulling.”
“A fight?” Arabella’s eyes widened. “A real fight?”
“Yes,” Bern told her.
“Pass the popcorn,” my sister said.
Why did I put up with all of this? Oh yeah, they were family and I loved them no matter what. But sometimes, like right now, I loved them significantly less.
I turned to Runa. “Your sister could have been kidnapped. The ransom would explain where the money went. But this scenario has problems.”
“Okay,” she said. “Like what?”
“First, if someone kidnapped Halle, and your mother paid the ransom, why kill her and why plant a fake Halle? If your mother failed to pay the ransom, where is the money, and again, why the decoy? It would make much more sense to contact you and say that they killed your mother and they have your sister. You would pay whatever they asked. Also, your mother says in the video that she didn’t regret her actions and that she did what she felt was right. That suggests that the fire was an act of punishment. She expected to be in danger, but she says nothing about your sister, and she made no effort to shield Halle by sending her away, for example, which implies your mother thought she was the only one in trouble. So no, none of this makes sense.”