The Demon Hunters by Linda Welch

Author:Linda Welch
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: detective, ghosts, demons, paranormal mystery, urban fantasy
Publisher: Linda Welch
Published: 2012-02-24T17:30:29+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“You have a lovely home.”

“Thank you,” Janine Hulme said. “Can I get you something to drink?”

Thank you thank you thank you! “I’d kill for a diet cola, if you have one.”

Janine lived in a gated community in southwestern Las Vegas near the Canyon Gate Country Club, just eight miles from the Strip, and her home was indeed lovely. From the front door, the passage led between a formal dining room and a formal living room, both walled in glass, so I had an unobstructed view of beautiful furniture and display cabinets. Janine took me to her more casually furnished great room, decorated in warm southwestern tones, with comfortable leather armchairs the color of soft caramel.

She brought me a can of soda, a glass of ice, and took a seat across from me. A large-boned woman with straggling straw-colored hair, she wriggled in her seat to get comfortable. I’d bet those straggling locks were a designer Do.

“Do you have the journal with you?”

I stopped pouring the soda before it fizzled over the rim of the glass and put the can on the coffee table. I wanted to hang on to the journal for the time being, so I tucked it between Janine’s low brick wall and a big rock just inside her front yard. “It’s evidence in an ongoing case, so I’m afraid we can’t release it yet, but I promise we will get it to you.” I felt in my pocket for the page I’d scanned. “I did bring a copy of one page.”

She practically snatched it from me and held it a few inches from her face, peering at it myopically. I picked up my glass and held it to my lips, waiting for the bubbles to subside.

I managed to say, “Is it genuine?” before I gave in to thirst and swigged a mouthful of soda.

She tore her gaze from the piece of paper. “This is Elizabeth’s handwriting.”

Not a forgery, then. “Is the journal valuable?”

Janine laughed lightly. “Only to a historian. Diaries from the Victorian era are not uncommon. Ladies of Elizabeth’s social class produced meticulously detailed accounts which included their day-to-day life, their thoughts, emotions and ideas, as well as the national beliefs and events of the times. Elizabeth’s journals are of great interest to me, first because she was my ancestor, second because she was a young English lady traveling in foreign lands. She spent countless hours on the ship to Rangoon, then on the long trek to Nagka, then in Nagka, with little to do but put her observations down on paper.”

She smiled. “Did you find it interesting?”

“Once I got used to her handwriting.”

I took another healthy slug. Interesting? Boy, was she in for a surprise when she read the journal. Would Elizabeth’s musings on sex between men and woman shock or amuse Janine? And what would she make of the girl’s tryst in the jungle and Nester’s mad declaration? Whatever. I’d make sure she got the journal after I found who sent it, and why.

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