Read Otherworld 11 - Waking the Witch for Free Online Page B

desk.
    “What do you take?”
    “Um, black ...”
    “Tough girl, huh?”
    I braced myself, but when he turned, he was smiling. He handed me the mug and started adding cream and sugar to his own.
    “Little young to be a private eye, aren’t you? I’ve got a grandnephew at Everest about your age.”
    “I’ve been with my firm for five years.”
    “Firm?” He took my card from his pocket. “Cortez-Winterbourne Investigations. Out of Portland.”
    I nodded. “We have a staff of four investigators with over thirty years’ experience among them. On this particular case we’re working in conjunction with a Seattle firm. Their lead investigator will be joining me soon. My primary job here is information gathering.”
    He nodded, then perched on the edge of his desk. “So who hired you ? ”
    “Claire Kennedy’s mother.”
    “I can check that, you know.”
    “Please do. The lead investigator is Jesse Aanes, from the Seattle firm I mentioned. Here’s his card.” I passed it over.
    He took it. “So Mrs. Kennedy doesn’t think small-town cops are up to the job?”
    I struggled to remember the line Lucas always used. “No, she just hoped a private investigator might be able to ... cut corners.” Not exactly what Lucas would say, but I was improvising. “Go where the law can’t.”
    “Huh.”
    He held my gaze. I probably should have dropped it, acted deferential, but it took everything I had just to hold it, calmly, not challenging.
    “Let’s cut the bullshit, Miss Levine. Maybe you talked Mrs. Kennedy into hiring you, but I know who called you first. It was Paula, wasn’t it?”
    “Paula?”
    His face darkened. “You really think I’m an idiot, don’t you? Small-town cop doesn’t know his elbow from his asshole. Paula Thompson called you because she doesn’t think I give a shit about what happened to her druggie daughter. She can’t afford to hire a PI, though, so she gets you to hit up Claire Kennedy’s rich parents. Am I right?”
    I looked him in the eye. “No.”
    He glowered at me and held my gaze. Did Lucas and Paige have to go through this crap every time they spoke to local law enforcement? I was tempted to walk out and dare him to do anything about it. I was even more tempted to practice my new persuasion spell. Memory loss in the recipient was the most common side effect. I could live with that, but there was also the possibility of a three-day power outage for the caster. I’d have to be in serious shit to risk that.
    “Look,” I said. “Paula Thompson has nothing to do with me being here, but I can tell that you don’t believe me. So let’s cut to the chase. You think Paula hired me to embarrass you, correct?”
    “Correct.”
    “To do that, presumably I’d need to solve the case and make an ass out of you.”
    His face darkened again, as if he was two seconds from telling me to watch my mouth.
    “What if I told you I don’t care who claims the arrest?” I said. “In fact, you’re welcome to it.”
    “Exactly how stupid—”
    You already asked that. And, trust me, you don’t want an answer.
“The collar doesn’t do me any good. All I need is a recommendation from you to my employer, telling them I was instrumental in solving the case.”
    He chewed that over, eyes narrowing in speculation now. Either I was naïve or I was desperate to prove myself on this job. Neither actually—a collar meant media attention, which we avoided, but he didn’t know that. Naive or desperate, I could be useful on a case that had obviously stalled.
    “I’m not here to take the case away from you,” I said after a minute of silence. “My client wants me to help you find who did it.”
    “Oh, I know who did it. I’m just compiling the evidence.”
    “Then maybe I can help with that. Like I said, there are things I can do, places I can go. No matter how good a cop you are, you’re still bound by cop rules. Those girls deserve the best and most complete investigation they can