Witch Hunt(14)

The smell of rose and jasmine made me sneeze twice, hard. It wasn’t just the incense. I was sensitive to magical energy—the stronger the active spell, the stronger my allergy attack. It was pretty much the most embarrassing quirk for a witch to have.
“I’m gonna open a window,” I said, scrubbing my nose furiously.
“Do it and die.” She breezed past me and climbed the stairs. “The couch is yours for the night, but we’ll need to figure out what you’re doing tomorrow.”
“Proving my innocence,” I called up after her. It was hard to work up conviction when another sneezing fit caught me.
I eyeballed her windows, trying to decide which I could crack without her noticing, and realized that one of them was covered in plywood. Broken?
I didn’t even see the clothing hurtling at me from the top of the stairs until I’d been smacked in the face. I caught them on my chest, picked them apart. They were a t-shirt and sweats that looked awfully familiar. Suzy yelled down at me, “I got those out of your locker at work. Don’t sit on my couch with your muddy clothes.”
I changed in the downstairs bathroom with Cat’s cold, appraising gaze behind me in the mirror. The bathroom mirror was shattered on the right side. It fragmented my face into five frowning sections. I wasn’t looking good—I could have passed for something dredged out of Helltown.
I tossed my clothes over an empty towel rack to dry then splashed water on my face and the back of my neck.
Even Suzy’s bathroom was filled with crystals and knickknacks. A row of porcelain cats with right paws uplifted filled the shelf across from her toilet. If Cat weren’t so damn furry, he’d be indistinguishable from his china counterparts.
Once I was as clean I was going to get, I dropped onto Suzy’s living room couch. I felt like I could have passed out the instant I settled onto the beaten furniture. The alcohol hangover had faded hours ago, but I had a shock hangover, too. The throbbing ache of a life turned upside down. Wasn’t that long ago that I’d squirmed out a police station window.
Suzy’s voice drifted downstairs. “There’s leftover chicken in the refrigerator if you’re hungry.”
Sounded good to me, but the fridge was around the corner about ten feet away, and it sounded like too much work. I kicked my feet up and sank against the arm of the sofa.
The pipes in the walls groaned as the shower started.
My eyes traveled to the folder I had dropped on Suzy’s coffee table. The red tab labeled “Isobel Stonecrow” and a ten-digit code specific to her case. I pulled it into my lap, flipped open the cover, and skimmed the details again.
This Stonecrow was some kind of witch who could talk to spirits. It was a rare talent, but not impossible. We used to have a witch on retainer at the OPA that did something like that. He would touch skulls and tell you what the victim was thinking before she died. Useful guy to have around. Made it real easy to close cases that the mundane police thought had gone cold.
He’d killed himself last year. We hadn’t found another witch that could talk to the dead since then.
But this Isobel Stonecrow, she might be able to do the same thing.
She might be able to ask Erin who killed her.
Stonecrow’s case file was a hell of a lot more interesting with that thought on the tip of my brain. I started reading it again with new eyes.
Three different families had filed complaints about her this year. One in Long Beach, one up near Sacramento, another down in San Jose. She sure got around. Wonder why she was traveling all over the state like that. Trying to keep us off her tail?
Those complaints hadn’t inspired this investigation. The last of those had come in three months ago, and we usually acted on real problems faster than that. If it wasn’t a problem now, it wasn’t a problem at all.
But the overview letter said that they wanted Stonecrow nailed within the week, and the budget set out for grabbing her was a lot more than we usually give one obnoxious witch.#p#分页标题#e#
That told me two things: first, that Stonecrow must have pissed someone off at the OPA, and second, that I wouldn’t be the only one looking for her. This wasn’t a case that was going to wait until I get back. They would have already given it to one of the other guys. Who knows? Maybe they were already on her trail tonight.
Not good.
I heard Suzy come down the stairs as I studied the files. Her shadow slid over me, doubled and tripled in size by all the candlelight. Her silhouette was almost as big as her personality. “Did you warm up the chicken?” she asked as she stepped into the kitchen. I smelled her body wash as she passed. She had used peach soap. Smelled feminine, like soft skin and curves.