Hit List(40)

17




EDWARD’S PHONE RANG. When it wasn’t Donna, apparently his ringtone was an old-fashioned ring. Good to know. “Forrester here.”

I heard a man’s voice like a rumble over the phone. I wondered if Ethan could actually hear the other side of the conversation.

Edward went straight into his Ted voice, all cheerful and aw-shucks. “Tilford, that’s good thinkin’ if ya got a good enough psychic.”

Ethan raised eyebrows at the change in Edward’s voice, but it wasn’t just his voice. Edward stood a little differently; his facial expressions matched the voice. There was more than one reason that he’d been so good at undercover work. He wasn’t just good at killing people; he was, in his way, as good at hiding among his prey as the Harlequin.

“Really, Morrigan Williams.”

The moment I heard the name, my stomach tried to drop into my feet. She was a very good psychic. A little too good if you were keeping as many secrets as Edward and I were.

“So Morrigan Williams was here visiting. You lucked out, Tilford.” Edward grinned at the phone as if Tilford could see him. He could do the Ted voice without the whole body and face going with it, but he tended to stay in character if we were with more law enforcement, as if he were more concerned about not dropping the act when he knew he’d be “Ted” for a long time.

He’d mentioned the name twice so I’d be sure to get the point. Neither of us would want to be spending much time near her. She was entirely too good, and her specialty was things that dealt with death. She specialized in serial killer cases and other violent death. Violence spoke to her psychically, the way it drew Edward and me in real life.

Edward got off the phone. The moment he was off, his face began to close down, go from smiling Ted to blank and serious. His blue eyes were cold when they looked at me. “You heard.”

“Neither you nor I can be anywhere near her,” I said.

“Why? She helps the police solve cases and talks to ghosts. Why should that be a problem for you guys?” Ethan asked.

“I’ve had psychics tell me that I’m covered in death. That my energy was so stained with all I’d done that they couldn’t be near me. They were gifted, but like most psychics they got impressions more than anything else. From all accounts Morrigan Williams gets much more detail.”

“You’re afraid she’ll see something about you two and tell the other policemen,” Ethan said.

“Yes,” I said.

“She’s that good?” He made it a question.

“If her reputation is deserved, yes,” I said.

“Can you avoid her?” Ethan asked.

I liked that. We’d told him the situation and he went straight to testing for a solution. “I don’t know.”

“Tilford has her at the first murder site now.”

“You mean the first murder site in this city,” I said.

Edward nodded. “You’re right, it’s not even close to the first, but yeah, he’s at the softball field.”

“That was fast,” I said.

“Apparently, she contacted the police. She was told that she could help them find what they seek.”

“That sounds like the regular psychic stuff,” Ethan said.

“True,” I said. I looked at Edward. “Maybe her reputation isn’t deserved.”

“Maybe,” he said. We looked at each other for a minute.

“What does Tilford want us to do?”

“He’s got a feeling that she’ll give them a direction to hunt in, so he wants us back to help finish the hunt.”

“That’s a lot of faith,” I said.

“I think Tilford trusts you and me at his back more than Newman.”

I grinned. “Well, who wouldn’t?”

“Is Newman bad at the job?” Ethan asked.

“No,” I said.

“We don’t know yet,” Edward said.

“He is literally the new man on the team,” I said.

“So untried commodity,” Ethan said.

“He’s fresh out of the training and he’s never been on a real vampire hunt.”

“I wouldn’t want him at my back either,” Ethan said, “or at least not just him.”

“We can’t leave Tilford hanging just because the psychic may see something she shouldn’t,” I said.

Edward nodded. “I know.”

“What are you going to do?” Ethan said.

“We’re going to the crime scene,” I said.

“What will you do about the Williams lady?”

“We’ll try to stay at a distance,” I said.

“Will that help?”

Edward said, “Will it?”