The Reluctant Renfield by Cate Lawley

Author:Cate Lawley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cate Lawley

11

THE MAGICAL GODS OF MAGIC

I wasn’t shocked by Cornelius’s announcement.

Not that Victor was dead, nor by the fact that his body had surfaced in a morgue with a Society contact on staff.

And I certainly wasn’t surprised by the fact that the body was missing a lot of blood. Not shocking considering how much of it had been left on his living room floor.

On some level I’d been expecting to hear about Victor’s death. I hadn’t believed that we could change the future. Not really.

Investigations took time. We had to speak with people in person. Read their reactions, apply pressure in the form of guilt, sympathy, or consequences to get them talking. Witnesses didn’t just volunteer information, not usually. Everyone had something to hide or a reason not to speak. In this instance, reluctance to discuss the practice of a previously shunned form of magic. But that was in addition to all of the usual suspects: dislike of emergency response, protecting others, hiding one’s own secret or the secrets of others, hesitance to provide information that could lead to negative consequences. So many reasons.

As for tech support, Bradley was fast, but there was only so much he could do at once, even with Michael’s help.

And evidence collected at the crime scene would take even longer to process. Star was probably still at Victor’s house collecting what she could.

Anton might or might not still be searching Victor’s office, but either way, that evidence would also have to be sorted through—by Bradley using his technical expertise and by Alex with an eye for alchemic clues.

Time was a limiting factor on all fronts of an active case, and it was unforgiving.

How much time had we wasted? Had we cost Victor his life with our bickering at the start of the investigation or with our inefficiencies?

And by we, I really meant me.

I’d been off. Working with Bitsy had me at less than my best.

“Mallory.” Alex stood next to my Jeep, the passenger door open. He was waiting for me to get inside.

It seemed that shock and extreme disappointment worked in similar ways. I’d been oblivious to the remainder of Cornelius’s call. Even to the fact that Alex had taken my phone from me or that we’d continued our walk to the car.

I needed to be in the here and the now. We had a murder to solve.

But before I moved to the present, I had one pressing question about the past.

“Did Cornelius know when Victor died?”

“Last night. Not long after his initial injuries. Quite possibly even before Bitsy’s dream.”

Instead of the relief I expected to feel—because nothing we could have done would have changed Victor’s fate, no matter how quickly we’d done it—I was angry.

“What’s the point of the stupid visions then?” I jammed my seat belt fastener closed. “If she’s not even getting them before the crime’s been committed, then what’s the point?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s just terrible. To be given hope like that, to think maybe, just maybe, you can have an effect, you can change the future, but then—no, just kidding.

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