1 Witchy Business (7 page)

Some of the contents of the room gave me a pretty good clue when it came to what Rebecca and Evert were doing there. Along the back wall, stacked according to a system that probably made sense at the time, there was enough assorted surveillance equipment to keep a small government agency happy for years. A camera pointed out of the window, along with a shotgun microphone, both hidden away behind partly closed curtains. A laptop on a small table showed video feeds obviously taken from wireless cameras dotted around the area.

“No one notices all the electricity that gear is using?” I asked.

Rebecca shrugged. “The rent is paid for a month. No one cares.”

I nodded, turning my attention back to the surveillance gear. There was a floor plan of a house taped on the wall, and every camera was pointed directly at Niall Sampson’s property.

“Really? You’re watching Niall Sampson? Why?”

“So that Evert can do his job,” Rebecca said, gesturing to one of the folding chairs.

I sat in it and immediately regretted it. I squirmed in the hard seat. “If this chair is meant to be torture, you’ve succeeded.”

“It came with the house,” Evert said, “and trust me, you don’t know anything about torture.”

I smiled tightly. “Which presumably means that the work you do for the coven doesn’t involve dropping round knitting patterns for the older members?”

Evert gave me another of those eloquent shrugs of his. “It turns out knitting isn’t my forte.”

“So, what is your forte?” I asked. “Are you going to tell me?”

“Be careful what you wish for.” Evert stretched, and those tattoos of his seemed to move. It was both threatening and curiously sensual.

“What is this all about?” I demanded, not wanting to back down from such a casual display of testosterone and nerve. “You two are completely interfering in my work and my life.”

He huffed, “Get off your little pea, princess. This is no fairy tale thing.”

I imagined
his
thing was a lot more dark and dangerous than the kinds of jobs I did, while apparently still leaving him plenty of time to spend in the gym. It was hard to avoid staring at him. The things tattooed on his skin were all looking at me, the ones that had eyes. I was more than a little creeped out.

Rebecca looked back and forth at us. A double take. A triple take. “Evert helps to solve problems for the coven.”

“Oh, then he’s just like me then,” I said sarcastically. “Why didn’t you say so? It’s always nice to have something in common with my captors. What’s next? A forced bank heist and indoctrination into a creepy cult?”

Evert smiled again. He didn’t look any less dangerous when he smiled, but it was good to watch anyway. Like a tiger. “The problems I solve have generally gone beyond being nice to people. By the time they call me in, everything has unraveled to the point where I either kill something and eat it, or deal with the problem by reminding sassy little witches that they should respect the authority of their betters. Real work.”

Oh, that was just so insulting. Like he was the only one who did the dangerous parts. Like I just spent my life running around spreading happiness, joy and good feeling…
damn.

“I’m not always this nice,” I insisted. I don’t know why I wanted to impress him with that. “And if you think I’m scared of you, you’re wrong.”

Evert stood there, his expression unreadable. It was probably not often that anyone stood up to him. Certainly not a witch who was around a foot and a half shorter than him. “You ought to be. I look forward to finding out someday just how much you can push the envelope with your powers, Little Miss Witchy Business.”

“Don’t
mock
you? Don’t
dare
me,” I retorted. I had never pulled out the stops on my powers, but this warlock was itching to push me into doing just that. The trouble was, I suspected that even if I used all the power I had, it still wouldn’t be much. I was an enchantress. Barely a real witch at all.

“Stop bickering, the both of you,” Rebecca said in her best schoolteacher voice. It was the tone she generally saved for when I’d cut things too close on a job. “Elle, you can see that we are in the middle of something important here. We need answers, please. What were you doing in Niall Sampson’s house?”

Finally, we were getting down to the reasons for them wanting to bring me here. Obviously, they were worried that I was going to get in the way of whatever they were doing with Niall’s place.

“Insurance work,” I explained, deciding that this had gone on long enough. If I waited for Rebecca to talk first, I’d still be there a year from now. As for Evert, I got the feeling he was enjoying the game too much. “Niall Sampson insures with one of the firms I work for. Earlier today, he had a valuable artwork stolen.” I took a pointed look around the room. “That theft hasn’t anything to do with either of you, has it?”

“You think I’d do something like that?” Rebecca asked. “Steal?”

As opposed to murdering, which Evert had already said he was fine with. Yet I knew Rebecca meant it. Stealing was beneath her. Actually, if it came to it, she’d probably get me to do it. Even so…

“It is an artifact of some possible magical importance. Or you could have been testing out Niall Sampson’s security system. Either way, I want to know so that I can get out of the way before things get complicated. And before you get in trouble with the coven.”

“My, my. It’s a bit late for that,” Evert said. “She didn’t tell you?”

Really? This was new. Rebecca was in hot water with the coven? No wonder she was so upset.

I wondered what she had done to raise their ire. I also wondered if snatching me off the street and cutting me down to some novice grade of witch with her insults was some unknown way for her to get back in the coven’s good graces.

I turned my attention back to Evert. His tattoos rippling with their own live moment on his skin—which was creepy, but fascinating—Evert moved over to look through the viewfinder of the camera aimed at Niall’s place. He glanced over to Rebecca, a crease of worry between his eyebrows.

“Too late. By now, he’ll surely have guessed what she is.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t have to be a problem,” she replied.

“Rebecca, you know it won’t be that simple. What if—”

“I’m not an—”

“Hey!” I said sharply, standing up from the uncomfortable folding chair and crossing my arms over my chest. I tried not to get angry, but there was something about Evert that made me want to hit him and I was close to it. I wanted to do something to him, anyway. Maybe not hit him. “I am right here, you know. In the room.”

Rebecca sighed, looking at me for several seconds, measuring just how ticked off I was. Her expression was indecipherable, and she’d already warned me about using my magic on her. “That’s the problem. Now that I think about it, this is just about the worst place for you to be right now, Elle. Could I persuade you to just let this one drop?”

“You want me to walk away from the case? Just like that?” I did my best not to sound too hurt by that. Even so, I shook my head. “No. No way. You haven’t told me a thing, and I have my professional reputation to consider, Rebecca. I don’t get work from the big names because I walk away with the job half done. And there is the matter of my fee.”

“Even so—”

“It wouldn’t work,” Evert said, interrupting. “She’s here now. He’s seen her. And she is not going to back down from a case. I wouldn’t.”

That felt almost like a compliment. Although exactly how much of a compliment it was to find myself compared to someone like Evert, I didn’t know.

“Come on,” I said. “What do you two know that I don’t?”

“I’m just trying to find a way out of this…mess,” Rebecca said.

I shook my head. “Listen, I don’t know the details of whatever you two are working on…”

“And you aren’t going to get them. Not yet.” Rebecca shook her head. “Stop fishing for details, Elle.”

“It is what I do. I fish. And apparently, you two have a whale on your hook and no clue what to do with it.”

I let that sink in. Rebecca swallowed hard.

I kept going. “Whatever it is, Evert is right. Niall has met me now. If you’re worried that seeing a witch will spook him—”

Rebecca rolled her eyes. “Must you speak like that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you were raised on a steady diet of American television.”

“I might not have been raised on it, but I make no apologies for getting hooked on American television in adulthood. So I like
Bewitched
, so what?”

“There’s a whole conversation full of reasons why that’s a problem,” Rebecca assured me. “We just don’t have the time right now. Just keep away from this, Elle.”

Not a request this time. An order. And still one I couldn’t go along with.

“If it’s just the thought of having me around your precious investigation that’s the problem, do you think that problem goes away if I leave? Don’t you think the insurers will send someone else? There is a lot of money at stake if the insurance company has to pay out that claim. And if they find out that you and Tattoo Man here are interfering—”

“Hey!” Evert protested.

I ignored him. “Listen to me, Rebecca. If the insurers found out that you were interfering with my investigation and they had to pay the claim as a result of my not recovering the stolen artwork, then you know they’d never talk to you again. Or me. You think that would make your job easier?”

Rebecca drew in her breath. She had to know I was right. Not only were her referrals for services through the coven her livelihood, but without information from insurers, it would be much harder for her to keep track of what was happening in the region. Whether it was selkies sinking ships or nereids causing flood damage, it was amazing how often supernatural events produced insurance claims.

I knew I had her then. “Let me continue the investigation. I spend half my time trying to keep the coven’s business private. You know I’m discreet. At least, this way, you know you’ve got a friendly face in the game. I have solved just about every case I have ever had for the coven, paid for or not.”

Rebecca winced at that small dig. The coven had never paid my fee for one of the jobs I had solved—it was considered uncollectible because of a connection to Saudi royalty.

The two of them looked at one another uncomfortably, and it was obvious that there was some kind of unspoken decision being made. Finally, Evert nodded.

“This could be dangerous, Elle,” Rebecca said. “More dangerous than you could ever imagine.”

I shrugged. “I can take care of myself. I’ll do anything you need me to do.”

“Now there’s an opening that’s hard to ignore,” Evert murmured.

Rebecca glared at him. There was something in that look that was almost…jealous. That certainly fit with what I could feel coming off her. I guess I was right about them before. Or, if they weren’t an item, then Rebecca certainly wanted that to change. I wanted to say that I couldn’t see the attraction, but that would have been a lie.

 “Right now, you don’t do anything to arouse suspicion, Elle,” Rebecca said, snapping me back from that thought.

“Suspicion? Of what?”

“You just continue with your investigation and keep us updated. Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

It was somewhere between a friendly goodbye and a dismissal. Either way, I took the opportunity gratefully, heading back out through the empty house with Rebecca in tow. It seemed like a good moment to ask her the obvious question.

“So, Rebecca,” I said when we got to the door, “are you and Evert…”