I hid a grin as I approached. “Oh, Aunt Tessa! You poor thing!” I exclaimed, pulling her away from the other woman’s arm as I wrapped her in a dramatic hug of my own. “Such a terrible shock!”
“Don’t oversell it, sweetling,” she muttered, but I could hear the laughter in her voice.
I gave the neighbor a smile full of false gratitude, then steered Tessa away and closer to the crime scene tape—out of earshot. “Tell me everything,” I demanded in a low voice.
“First, I must thank you for getting me away from that inane woman,” Tessa replied tartly. “What a dingbat! She kept wanting me to pray with her ‘for strength.’” She gave a slight shudder. “Anyway, I was in the front sitting room when I thought I felt a ping from the wards. I figured it was just a neighbor trying to drop by and visit, so I pretty much ignored it since the aversions would take care of that for me.”
I nodded impatiently and resisted the urge to tell her to get to what happened.
“But they pinged again, which meant that whoever was trying to approach the house had more will to get to the house than the aversion could overcome. I looked out the window and saw someone in the front yard, so I turned on the lights. I didn’t realize it was Thomas, otherwise I’d have called nine one one right then and told them to bring the K-9s and their Tasers.” Her lips pressed together in distaste. “He was moving forward but fighting every step of the way.” She shook her head, brow furrowed. “I figured the defensive wards would get the message across, but he didn’t make it that far. Instead…he—”
“Grabbed his head, screamed, then keeled over?” I finished for her, a sick sensation building in my stomach that had nothing to do with the cuff on my wrist. At least, I didn’t think so.
She gave a brisk nod, eyes on me. “The other two. They died the same way, I take it.”
“I wasn’t there when Barry Landrieu died, but Evelyn sure did. And she and Barry both had the same kind of strokes.” My gaze slid to the shielded body. I had no doubt Doc would find signs of stroke in him too.
“I pulled the aversions back so that your people could work,” she said, nose wrinkling in annoyance.
“I’m sure they appreciate it, even if they don’t realize it,” I said, frowning. Before I’d left the house I’d popped some painkillers that had successfully squashed my headache. I’d also taken a few minutes to pee on the pregnancy test stick—which had come up with a nice, lovely result of Not Preggers. Now, with less pain and stress, I could think again, and I didn’t like what I was coming up with. “I think there’s another connection between these three—not just the fact that I knew them all.”
“And could conceivably have motive to want them dead?” she added.
I grimaced, nodded. Trust Tessa to get right to the point. “Yes. But Thomas was trying to get into your house. You have a portal in there.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Awhile back I found an old and buried portal in the detective’s parking lot at the PD. There was a lightning strike, and it made a hole.…They covered it with asphalt so I didn’t think about it.”
Even in the dim light I could see that Tessa had gone pale. “And the first body?”
I hugged my coat closer around me, suddenly chilled. “I felt something off, but couldn’t pin it down. But I’d be willing to bet one of my measly paychecks that there’s a portal somewhere in that area as well.” I eyed her. “What are they for? I thought the one in your library was random, but it’s not, is it?”
“I’m not sure,” she said, which surprised me. I’d somehow assumed she knew exactly what it was for and why it was there. “I only know that protecting it has always been of paramount importance. I inherited the place from my Great Aunt Nikki, even though I’d never met the woman, and she had children of her own. But she’d clearly been an arcane practitioner as well, because with the house came the contents of the library, along with a completely vague and rambling letter that maundered on and on about how vital it was that the portal be guarded and the wards maintained.” Tessa gave a low snort. “She was ninety-eight when she died, and I think her mind had gone bye-bye several years before.”
“Or maybe she didn’t know why it needed to be protected either,” I pointed out.
Tessa gave a quick bark of laughter. “Now that’s a possibility as well! When I get the chance I’ll have to look and see how she came into possession of this place.” Squaring her shoulders, she said, “But for now I need you to stay here and make sure all this is taken care of.” Tessa waved her hand at the goings-on in her front yard. “And if I’m not back by the time they finish up, can you please reactivate the outer wards?”
“Sure thing. But where are you going to be?”
She gave me a hard smile. “I think that Carl and I are going to go on a nature walk.”
After Tessa left, I waited for Sarge to get a free minute to talk to me. Since I had a personal involvement, I didn’t want to go beyond the crime scene tape.
He came over to me as soon as the Coroner’s Office van pulled up. “You all right?”
I briefly considered acting like I didn’t know what he was talking about, but then I realized it would be pointless. The crap with Thomas had only been a couple of years ago and had been the talk of the department.
I gave him a nod. “You got a minute?”
“I got more than a minute if you need it,” he said, looking at me with concern.
I took a deep breath. “There’s a link between Thomas here, the death out at the Nature Center, and the lady who died after running into my car.”
“You?”
I nodded.
He lit a cigarette, and I shifted upwind of him. “I knew about Thomas, of course,” he said. “And Tracy Gordon told me about the Stark woman.” He blew out smoke and didn’t look at me. “What’s the deal with Landrieu?”
“Gave me heroin when I was fourteen,” I said, not looking at him either, but I could still see him twitch in surprise. “I overdosed. Nearly died.”
“Damn,” he muttered. He flicked ash onto the sidewalk. “Y’think someone’s trying to set you up?”
“That, or someone thinks they’re doing me a favor,” I replied.
He made a sour noise in the back of his throat. “Well, it obviously doesn’t look good that people you have plenty of reason to dislike are falling over dead. But I also don’t believe for a second that you’re doing it.”
I inclined my head. “I appreciate your faith in me.”
“Only because I know you’d find a way to hide the bodies.” He snorted, smiled. “Well, if someone’s trying to set you up, we need to beat whoever it is to the punch, and let the chief know what’s going on.”
A knot of tension in my chest began to unwind. “Yeah. Makes sense.”
“Now, let me ask you a question,” he said, peering at me.
I waited.
“These deaths. Are they part of all that magic woowoo crap you do?”
I bit back the urge to snicker at his reaction and kept my face sober. “Probably so,” I replied.
“Fucking hell,” he muttered. He dropped the cigarette to the sidewalk and ground it out under his heel. “I’ll fill the chief in. I’ll also need to reassign the Landrieu case.”
“Understood.”
“You need anything else from me?”
I shook my head. “I’m good. Thanks, Sarge.”
“See you in the morning, then. Now get the fuck off my car.”
I gave him a mock salute and stepped back from his car. After he drove off I looked around to see if Jill was finished up. She was leaning against her van with her hands stuffed into her pockets, which led me to assume she was done and was waiting for me.